Recently, ‘Percy Jackson: The Lighthing Thief’ Director, Chris Columbus mentions bits about Logan casting in Percy movie with Rolls Credit Online.

How much input did you have in the casting process?

My assistant told me I should go see this film a few years back called 3:10 to Yuma (2007) because of this kid’s performance, Logan Lerman. I went to see the movie and I was really blown away by his performance. I kept it in the back of my head [and] when it came time to do Percy, I remembered Logan and he stuck with me. He came in, we had an interview, and he was just absolutely phenomenal in the interview and he agreed to do a screen test for the studio and he was just mesmerizing. Honestly, you see this a couple times in your life. I think this guy is on the path to become someone like Matt Damon or Tom Cruise. He really is that strong of a performer. He’s sort of like a 45-year-old actor in a 17-year-old body. I was completely impressed and blown away with his performance in the film and it’s all on screen.

Is there anything special you do to help your actors become more comfortable with one another on set and kind of break the ice? Do you have rehearsals?
Yeah, we do a couple weeks of rehearsals where we’ll just sit and read through the script. That, and with a film like this, this film demanded intense physical rehearsals so Alex and Logan had to do weeks and weeks of swordfighting training, really intense physical training. Logan also, at one point in the film, is flying because he’s wearing Hermes’ flying shoes so he has to work in a harness. While he was flying, he was actually battling a 5-headed hydra so he needed to have that sort of physical training to be able to basically swordfight in the air while flipping over mid-air. So, those kind of physical challenges combined with the usual rehearsal period made for an intense pre-production time.

Source: Roll Credits Online