Boudica Movie

[Nathan Ross]

It takes a really good director to make that balance. Mel Gibson comes to mind.

As you probably already know, there was a rumour some time ago that Gibson was about to make a film about Boudica. Personally I think this is an alarming prospect. Not only has he proved himself a fan of skinhead Romans in leather segmentata (Passion of the Christ), but also has a tendency to present history in a very distorted way, as a combination of myth and heavy-handed modern political allegory. Neither of these things are good, imo.

The Thin Red Line was a superior film in terms of cinema as art.

I wonder what an ancient history film by Mallick would look like? Or the Coen Brothers... Interesting, actually, that the Westerns being made today are often using the same storylines as their 50s and 60s ancestors, but leaning more towards (what I presume to be) historical accuracy. This might prove that attention to detail in these things is not necessarily a crowd-displeaser...

I even prefer the Sci-Fi Channel's production of Dune over the David Lynch feature film, even though the latter had the better cast.

Ah, got to disagree with you there! Lynch's Dune is a work of genius... But then, I've never read the books so don't have any chips in the 'authenticity' game...

Perhaps the Hadrian film will find a new life on HBO, This might apply for Boudicca as well.

TV tends to work better with more knotty and involved multiple-storyline ideas (like The Borgias, on at the moment, or Mad Men in another field), so you'd have to mix Hadrian or Boudica up with some other narratives - perhaps not a bad idea.

Incidentally, I heard there were plans to make Simon Scarrow's legionary novels into a TV adaptation. I don't know who was behind this, or what's become of it...