LOS ANGELES: Hollywood is powering up for a clash of the titans this year, with two films about the legendary Hercules — one starring teen heartthrob Kellan Lutz, and a more mature version later in the year.

The superhero standoff — Tinseltown seems prone to doing movies in pairs, after two adaptations of the Snow White tale last year — comes 16 years after the last Hercules movie, by Disney in 1997.

The first new one to do battle opens Friday in North America, with Lutz in his first major lead role after becoming the object of teenage girls’ adoration for his role as vampire Emmett Cullen in the “Twilight” saga.

Directed by action film veteran Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2,” “Cliffhanger” and “Exorcist: The Beginning“), “The Legend of Hercules” retraces his youth when he was still unaware of his divine ascendancy, sold as a slave and fighting to reconquer his kingdom.

“The story of Hercules we tell in the movie is one of the tales. There are a plethora of tales you could give and bring to life about Hercules,” Lutz told a small group of reporters in Beverly Hills.

Along with Tarzan and He-Man, Hercules was among the heroes Lutz admired most as a child. He was hugely happy to breathe fresh life into the demigod. “With that role, I fulfilled a dream,” he said.

“As a little kid I had middle-child syndrome, I grew up on a lot of land with a lot of farm animals, and I had a lot of alone time. And I was able to use my imagination to create the world of Tarzan, Mowgli, He-Man, Hercules, Ninja Turtles.