Hollywood Romans -- New Feature Film about...

[Legionary25]

Looks like Constantine might be getting a film now. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36555. Im happy that there is still enough interest in the Romans to make these films, but lets hope they don't go too Hollywood!

[Robert Vermaat]

Looks like Constantine might be getting a film now. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36555. Im happy that there is still enough interest in the Romans to make these films, but lets hope they don't go too Hollywood!

Shall we write some emails to the studio, begging that they get the clothing right? Or is there a blog or FB page?

[Virilis]

Looks like Constantine might be getting a film now. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36555. Im happy that there is still enough interest in the Romans to make these films, but lets hope they don't go too Hollywood!

Shall we write some emails to the studio, begging that they get the clothing right? Or is there a blog or FB page?

I think we should. I would hate to see another opportunity turn into a fiasco like the "King Arthur". :-(

[Robert Vermaat]

I would hate to see another opportunity turn into a fiasco like the "King Arthur". :-(

Especially as mr Franzoni directed 'that movie'! :|

[M. Demetrius]

fiasco like the "King Arthur".

What? You didn't like the rabbit skin bikini?

[Graham Sumner]

and according to the IMDB there is going to be a remake of Ben-Hur set for release in 2015!

Graham.

[Numerianus]

I am surprised that no-one has mentioned 'Empire of Dragons' by Manfredi, which is exactly the story of the lost soldiers against Parthia notionally reaching China.

[Alanus]

Personally, I don't expect much from this film... if it even gets off the ground. Several years ago, a Tai film took up the same premise-- Romans in ancient Siam. And we find some Roman-looking characters at the beginning of the Cinese film, Dective Dee and the Mystery Flame, one guy called "Aspar"... a tribute to an Eastern Empire near-emperor.

For imagination and ripping fight scenes, I'll stick with Bejing and Hong Kong, thank you. :whistle:

Oh! And you can actually watch Chinese films in real COLOR, as opposed to Hollywood period films that have become so dark they might as well be shot in B & W. :dizzy:

[Quintius Clavus]

And, by the way, going back to the necessity of having a Keltic guy or two in the film, Crassus' son Publius brought along Celtic (possibly from the Aedui) cavalry to support dear old dad in his Parthian venture. Of course, they found the desert climate a too-far-thing from their homelands; suffering a lot from the heat as a result/long desert vistas may have terrified them, too, as one cannot see so far in the more forested lands of Gaul. Publius was pursuing the Parthian horse archers with his Celtic cavalry when he was killed and they were likely massacred.

[Alanus]

Hey, Quintius

I think they got "contusized." :whistle:

[Narukami]

and according to the IMDB there is going to be a remake of Ben-Hur set for release in 2015!

Graham.

Thanks for the 'heads up' on this new film Graham!

Here is the article from Deadline. (The comments are even more amusing than the project itself.)

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/new-ben-...ace-novel/

Sweet Chariot! MGM is Rebooting ‘Ben-Hur’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday January 14, 2013 @ 6:39pm EST

EXCLUSIVE: What a difference $2 billion in late fall box office business has done for MGM‘s ambitions. The studio is planning to unleash a new version of Ben-Hur, based on the 1880 Lew Wallace novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, which outsold every book but The Bible until it was eclipsed by Gone With The Wind.

MGM, which emerged from bankruptcy and is raising new funding after Skyfall crossed $1 billion worldwide gross and The Hobbit heads to the $900 million mark, is buying a Ben-Hur spec by Keith Clarke (he scripted the Peter Weir-directed The Way Back), and the package comes with Sean Daniel and Joni Levin attached to produce, and Clarke and Jason Brown exec producing.

MGM actually released the 1959 Charlton Heston-starrer Ben-Hur, as well as the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ. The studio isn’t looting its library titles: MGM, which has seen many of its assets pillaged during previous ownership regimes, sold the Heston film to Ted Turner in the 1980s. But the book is public domain. MGM, now steered by Gary Barber and production president Jonathan Glickman and taking on action adventure films that include Hercules with Dwayne Johnson, just loved a spec that is faithful to the book and is much different than the 1959 William Wyler film that focused on the adult blood feud between Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd).

This film will tell the formative story of the characters as they grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem. Judah Ben-Hur was a Jewish prince and Messala the son of a Roman tax collector. After the latter leaves to be educated in Rome for five years, the young man returns with a different attitude. Messala mocks Judah and his religion and when a procession passes by Judah’s house and a roof tile accidentally falls and hits the governor, Messala betrays his childhood friend and manipulates it so that Judah is sold into slavery and certain death on a Roman warship, with his mother and sister thrown in prison for life.

Judah doesn’t die, and vows revenge on Messala which, like in the films, culminates in the famed chariot races. There is another way the script differs from the movie, in that it will tell the parallel tale of Jesus Christ, with whom Ben-Hur has several encounters which moves him to become a believer in the Messiah, and which culminates in Christ being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. Intertwined in all this is the lifelong struggle between Ben-Hur and Messala.

The depiction of Jesus Christ as an occasional character in the script puts this project squarely in the mix of Biblical-themed films that are proliferating at studios around town. They include Pontius Pilate, which now has Brad Pitt attached to the Vera Blasi-scripted Warner Bros project; two films about Moses that Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott are separately circling; and the Darren Aronofsky-directed Noah, which stars Russell Crowe.

“It’s one of the great stories of friendship and betrayal, and faith, that works in the context of a big onscreen action thriller for a global audience,” Daniel said of the Wallace novel.


And it looks like Brad Pitt will be doing the new film about Pontius Pilate -- IF it emerges from Development Hell. Of course that "IF" applies to all these projects. Anything is possible in Hollywood until someone starts asking for money. As always, time will tell.

:|

Narukami

[Robert Vermaat]

And it looks like Brad Pitt will be doing the new film about Pontius Pilate

As director or actor?

[Narukami]

And it looks like Brad Pitt will be doing the new film about Pontius Pilate

As director or actor?

THey want him to play the title role of Pilate. He was "considering" it, but now it seems he has taken the part. Of course, this means he will not be playing Antony to his wife's Cleopatra in the new film on the Egyptian Queen. Oh well -- she's no Taylor and he's no Burton, and that's just fine.

http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/7-off-t...ilate.html

:wink:

Narukami

[M. Demetrius]

I'll still be sad when Cleopatra gets bitten on the asp. ad:

[john m roberts]

If I should die before that scene is shot, I hope to be reincarnated as that snake.