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Sword and Sandal movie updates
delalluvia:
For those of you out there who like sword and sandal movies, I was perusing one of my fav author's website and he had a lot of interesting upcoming movies listed in his updates:
Early Christian terrorism?
The most anticipated Ancient World movie of 2009: "Agora", from director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others; The Sea Inside) starring Rachel Weitz as Hypatia, the scientist-scholar who ran afoul of the Christians in Alexandria in 415 A.D. It’s said to be the most expensive Spanish production ever, with an extraordinary recreation of ancient Alexandria (a city seldom depicted in movies). US release date: December 18
Kids and McKidd
Logan Lerman will play the title role in "Percy Jackson", based on the wildly popular Young Adult series of fantasy novels by Rick Riordan about a modern-day teenager who discovers he’s not just Percy, but Perseus, son of Poseidon (Kevin McKidd); cosmic adventures ensue. Uma Thurman plays Medusa, Sean Bean is Zeus, and Pierce Brosnan plays the centaur Chiron. Chris Columbus is directing. Look for release in 2010
New Spartacus
Sam Raimi (creator of TV’s Hercules and Xena) is co-producing "Spartacus: Blood and Sand", a 13-hour series to debut on Starz in 2010. Lucy Lawless will play the proprietor of a gladiator camp, while Australian actor Andy Whitfield will be Spartacus. From the press release: “Spartacus will take the story of the rebellious warrior-slave and re-imagine it for a generation of TV viewers raised on graphic novels and cutting-edge production technology....set in the brutal world of gladiators [with] no shortage of intense action and vivid, R-rated storytelling.”
New Ben-Hur
David Wyler, son of director William Wyler (who won an Oscar for Ben-Hur in 1959), is producing a new version of "Ben-Hur" as a $30 million TV miniseries. Steven Shill (of The Tudors, Rome, and Deadwood) will direct from a script by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy).
The women
Scarlett Johansson is set to star in "Amazon", the tale of a gladiatrix who exacts vengeance on the army that destroyed her homeland, circa 200 B.C. Screenplay is by the team of Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain, scripters for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and the upcoming new Conan epic.
Alexander the Straight, a musical
Alexander the Great goes Bollywood in "Royal Utsav". Thanks to reincarnation, the Greek conqueror finally realizes his dream of reaching India, where he meets a beautiful queen and inspires the author of the Kama Sutra. Expect singing, dancing, and lots of (strictly heterosexual) romance. Oliver Stone, eat your heart out!
HBO's Rome
Will there be a movie version of the TV series Rome? Bruno Heller says he would like to produce a theatrical wrap-up to his prematurely canceled HBO drama. “There is talk of doing a movie version. It’s moving along. It’s not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off.”
Catherine Zeta as Cleo - a musical
Catherine Zeta-Jones may play Cleopatra and Hugh Jackman may play Antony in "Cleo", a $30 million 3-D musical to be directed by Steven Soderbergh. Although the story has been oft-filmed (most famously with the 1963 Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), this Cleo would be Hollywood’s first musical based on the star-crossed lovers. But don’t expect an Ancient World feast for the senses; the story will be transposed to 1920s America
Alexander the Straight, Part Deux
"Young Alexander the Great", about the conqueror’s teenaged years (think “Alexander 90210”) stars Sam Heughan as Alexander and Paul Telfer (of Hercules and Spartacus) as Hephaestion.
First Brad Pitt massacres "Troy", now he's set to destroy "The Odyssey"
Variety reports: “After turning Homer’s epic poem The Iliad into the 2004 film Troy, Warner Bros. and Brad Pitt are teaming with director George Miller to adapt the Greek poet’s other masterwork, The Odyssey. Their intention is to transfer the tale to a futuristic setting in outer space.”
Hadrian the Straight? I hope not
John Boorman will film Marguerite Yourcenar’s classic novel "Memoirs of Hadrian". The buzz: 007 star Daniel Craig as Hadrian. Who will play Antinous, the young lover deified by the emperor after drowning in the Nile? For the ultimate in Antinous worship, visit The Sacred Antinous.
Graphic novels
Director Peter Berg (Hancock) is set to make a new movie version of "Hercules", based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian War
Indy
Coming down the chimney this year? "Nicholas of Myra" is an independent feature about the original St. Nick. No, Virginia, not Santa Claus, but his ancient prototype who attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., shortly after Constantine the Great made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
For additional info, pics and links here's the website
http://stevensaylor.com/StevensBookshopDVDNewMovies.html
Mikaela:
Hmmm.... I'd never thought I'd see Hypatia portrayed in film. A highly intelligent and scolarly woman, teacher to men, torn to pieces by a Christian mob bent on getting the point across that women should keep themselves in silence at home according to the word of Paul? Not modern-day film material in this day and age of kow-towing respectfully to religious believers no matter what. But of course, it remains to be seen exactly how she's portrayed. Perhaps she'll be depicted as a wanton blasphemer who had it coming. :-\
The Scarlett Johanson "Amazon" thing sounds more like a fanboy's wet dream than an actual film...it isn't listed under her name at ImbD, but of course may be in the pipeline even so.
Whether or not all or some of these are just rumours or even jokes (I mean, Zeta-Jones in Cleopatra the musical!?!) this was an interesting read. Not that I'm generally into sword and sandal movies. But stuff based on mythology and ancient history can be very good and exciting. Unless it's "Troy". Ugh what a travesty in most respects, though the continual consolation prize of endless vistas of good-looking, toned and barely-clothed men somehow made it watchable... :P
Kerry:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on July 08, 2009, 01:15:20 am ---
Hadrian the Straight? I hope not
John Boorman will film Marguerite Yourcenar’s classic novel "Memoirs of Hadrian". The buzz: 007 star Daniel Craig as Hadrian. Who will play Antinous, the young lover deified by the emperor after drowning in the Nile? For the ultimate in Antinous worship, visit The Sacred Antinous.
--- End quote ---
Daniel Craig as Hadrian? In steamy sex love scenes with a modern-day Antinous look-alike? Vah-Vah-Voom!!! Be still my beating heart! Can't wait! If they get an actor just half as gorgeous as the real Antinous, this'll be one heck of a hot-hot-hot movie! Phew, I'm feeling all hot and bothered just thinking about it!
The Emperor Hadrian's Lover, Antinous
Click on this link to visit the web site of The Temple of Antinous:
http://www.antinopolis.org/index.html
Kerry:
Found this clip on YouTube re a BBC documentary about Hadrian and Antinous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmj1aumUdmE&feature=fvsr
Kd5000:
Wow, thanks for posting all that information. I've read some of Saylor's books and I really enjoyed Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome . I didn't know he had a website and interesting one at that. Thanks for that link.
I was aware of the movie version of MEMORIES OF HADRIAN as I was curious to see what John Boorman is doing of late. Nobody on IMDB's msg board for "Memories of Hadrian" is really discussing the sexual angle of the film. Someone posted it would be great for Zach Efron to play Antinous, but others pointed out he'd turn down the role because of his Disney image. ;)
I had read that AGORA was having problems finding a distributor in the USA. Hope they get one. Are the studios worried about a religious group boycott?? I think not.
Some of those other projects sound very dicey. I wish HBO would ad another season of ROME instead of just a two hour movie. I guess it was an expensive series. Evidently ROME isn't very popular in Italy as they don't like these English lads playing their Italian ancestors.
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