Immortals Turns 15: Tarsem Singh Didn’t Want to Make It — Then Pitched “Caravaggio Meets Fight Club” and Cast Henry Cavill Before He Was Superman

Released on 11/11/11, Immortals turns 15 on Nov. 11, 2026, and the story of how Tarsem Singh made it starts with him saying no. The huge success of 300 opened the floodgates for hyper-stylized historical epics based on ancient mythology, giving us the likes of Clash of the Titans remake and Gods of Egypt. And not to forget Immortals, which reunites 300 co-producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton in their attempt to replicate the success of that 2007 box-office hit. They enlisted Tarsem Singh to spearhead Immortals and granted him $75 million, easily his most expensive movie at the time compared with his more modestly budgeted The Cell (2000) and The Fall (2006).

Despite being his first foray into the big-budget studio blockbuster, Immortals went on to exceed expectations with an impressive $32.2 million debut at No. 1 domestically, beating newcomers including Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill and Clint Eastwood’s biographical drama J. Edgar. It even dethroned Puss in Boots, which had dominated the No. 1 spot for two consecutive weekends. With the benefit of 3D showings (read: pricier ticket sales), Immortals became a financial hit, culminating in over $226 million worldwide, and to date, it remains Singh’s biggest box office success (Rotten Tomatoes: 50% Tomatometer, 49% Popcornmeter).

Why Tarsem Singh Initially Said No to Directing Immortals

Interestingly, Singh originally had no interest in a genre film like Immortals when the producers first approached him. He found Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides’ initial draft, which features Greeks and gods but “none of that really interested [him]”, even going as far as saying it was fairly predictable material. He would only agree to do the film if he was given the creative freedom to overhaul the script because he wanted to put his filmmaking stamp.

The script revision and everything else reportedly took him up to a year and a half, including changing the lead character Theseus from the son of a king to the son of a peasant since he wasn’t keen on sticking to the original Greek mythology. He envisioned Theseus as a more relatable underdog hero rather than someone with royal blood, allowing him to expand his character arc from a lowly peasant and an outcast who lost his beloved mother to being consumed by vengeance and hatred against the tyrannical King Hyperion, before becoming a selfless martyr fighting for freedom.

Caravaggio Meets Fight Club: How Tarsem Singh Gave Immortals Its Painterly Look

Singh also had a specific vision in fulfilling a distinct look for Immortals, where he ended up pitching the studio to turn the movie into a painting strip film rather than a comic strip film, citing it as Caravaggio meets Fight Club. He figured it would be an interesting concept to imagine “how someone from the Renaissance would paint the Greeks”, blending old-school composition with contemporary action.

He deliberately chose the renowned Italian painter Caravaggio as the main source of inspiration by highlighting the prominent use of chiaroscuro, referring to the high contrast between light and dark, which explains why Immortals had scenes with lots of thick shadows and inky-black framing.

Besides, his unique lighting approach was meant to bring something different to his movie after finding that a comic strip-style film had been done before, while the idea of a handheld, gritty approach was deemed too lazy. The aforementioned contemporary action was more in line with Fight Club and Oldboy, but he insisted on framing them in an intimate yet painterly style rather than going for the typical fast-cutting technique.

Why Tarsem Singh Cast Henry Cavill as Theseus in Immortals Before He Became Superman

Less than two years before Henry Cavill went on to become part of the pop culture phenomenon playing Clark Kent/Superman in Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, Man of Steel, he was relatively unknown at the time, with his biggest acting credit being a television star in the historical drama The Tudors. So, casting Cavill came across as a risky gamble, especially leading a major Hollywood blockbuster like Immortals. Cavill has since been replaced as Superman by David Corenswet in James Gunn’s Superman (2025).

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But Singh insisted it was his preference to pick someone who was lesser known, and one of the few exceptions in Immortals was enlisting the more familiar Mickey Rourke to play King Hyperion. He ended up fighting hard to make sure Cavill was the one to play Theseus after he was impressed by his audition. The studio was initially worried, but Cavill gave his best and proved to be the right man for the role, even dedicating himself to working hard for a rigorous six-month training to build an ideal physique.

Singh followed Immortals with Mirror Mirror (2012) and Self/less (2015) before making his first Indian feature, Dear Jassi. Fifteen years on, none of those films has topped Immortals at the box office.

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Immortals is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home in the US (availability may vary; check JustWatch for the latest).