The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Sword and Sandal movie updates
delalluvia:
Mikaela,
I agree, many of the potential shows are kinda iffy IMO. Stuff like Scarlett Johannsen as a gladiatrix and Lucy Lawless as the owner of a gladiator school are pure fanboy fantasy movies where neither woman is likely to wear much.
Kerry,
Yes, the thought of Daniel Craig as Hadrian and some pretty boy toy as Antinous in a hot sexy clench makes me all wiggly as well. ;D
--- Quote from: Kd5000 on July 08, 2009, 10:39:51 am ---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.
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Funny thing is that I'm reading the book Long Way Down, the story of the charity motorcycle trip from Scotland to South Africa done by Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman, and in the book, Charley mentioned calling his dad (John Boorman) to check in and fill him in on the trip so far and his father was in a good mood because he'd gotten the OK for his movie about Hadrian. It didn't really click until I read this blurb.
Zac Efron would be awesome in the part, IMO, since he basically looks like a young Jared Leto - who played Hephaestion to Colin Farrell's Alexander. He's done with Disney, isn't he?
--- Quote ---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.
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I would hope not. I'm like Mikaela, I never thought they'd make a movie about her since what happened makes early Christians - including one who is now a saint - look extremely bad.
But thankfully, truth will out.
--- Quote ---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. [/color]
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Really? I heard that those in Rome loved the series ROME because not only was it filmed there, the extras were played by Romans and the majority of the minor roles were played by Italian actors and even the craftsmen for some of the props were from Italy. Yeah, I'd love another season of ROME as well, but it was a very expensive series. The ratings for it were always better than for HBO's series ENTOURAGE, but ENTOURAGE had a much cheaper overhead since it's filmed in modern times in L.A. so when the time came to axe a series, HBO went with ROME sadly.
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: Kerry on July 08, 2009, 10:28:20 am ---Found this clip on YouTube re a BBC documentary about Hadrian and Antinous:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmj1aumUdmE&feature=fvsr
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the link. I've read up on them and I own the book Beloved and God, the story of Hadrian and Antinous and while spotty on actual facts, since there is not much known about their lives together, it does go into various theories about what happened to Antinous.
i.e. was he accidentally drowned or was it suicide or was he murdered?
and the reasoning behind each theory. The book had lots of interesting reading about the orgiastic religion that was the worship of Antinous - why can't religion be like that anymore? ;) and how devoted the faithful were to his worship. The book mentioned recovery of statues of Antinous that had been carefully buried possibly lest they fall prey to marauders or even early Christian fanatics, and cemetery remains of young men or boys buried with decals of Antinous the god asking for his blessing. It was really sweet and eye-opening.
I felt for Hadrian's wife Sabina though. From all reports, Antinous got along with her alright. I saw a bust of Sabina at the Louvre and it's one of the photos I regret not taking because she was drop dead gorgeous if that bust of her is anything to go by. I posed by and had many pictures taken of me next to statues of Antinous though. ;D
Mikaela:
--- Quote from: Kerry on July 08, 2009, 10:12:36 am ---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!
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Erm.... I hate to be a wet blanket, but..... I wouldn't get my hopes up till I saw the finished product.
Having seen what was left of the Achilles/Patrochlos relationship in "Troy", and the Alexander/Hephaestion and Alexander/Bagoas relationships in "Alexander", I entirely doubt Hollywood when it comes to portraying historical or mythical m/m relationships. They mostly haven't got the guts. At all.
Now the "sword and sandal movie I'd like to see made, would be someone filming "The Persian Boy", and actually staying true to the source material. Except I wouldn't mind the film being a tad more explicit, since Mary Renault's novel very maddeningly skirts around the sex oh-so-politely and with eyes very firmly closed. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit. Or two. :P
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on July 08, 2009, 05:25:50 pm ---Having seen what was left of the Achilles/Patrochlos relationship in "Troy", and the Alexander/Hephaestion and Alexander/Bagoas relationships in "Alexander", I entirely doubt Hollywood when it comes to portraying historical or mythical m/m relationships. They mostly haven't got the guts. At all.
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Heh, excellent point. Yeah, they'd probably make Antinous, Hadrian's cousin or the gods forbid, his son.
Kerry:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on July 08, 2009, 04:22:00 pm ---Thanks for the link. I own the book Hadrian and Antinous I think it's called and while spotty on actual facts, since there is not much known about their lives together, it does go into various theories about what happened to Antinous.
i.e. was he accidentally drowned or was it suicide or was he murdered?
--- End quote ---
Some commentators believe Antinous may have ritually sacrificed himself by jumping into the Nile. Couple of reasons. Though he was born in what is modern-day Turkey, he was of Greek heritage and it is presumed he was raised in the Greek manner re the erastes/eromenos practice. This was not the Roman tradition, however, and even though Hadrian was a lover of Greek culture, his Court was not necessarily so. Hadrian and Antinous were a classic erastes/eromenos couple. Alas, however, where even the fundamentalist Romans of the day may have been prepared to turn a blind eye to this when Antinous was young, they were not prepared to do so when he became a man. And by all accounts, he grew into a fine figure of a young man, very athletic and masculine in his manner. He was certainly no mincing, perfumed, giggling court catamite. Whilst accompanying Hadrian on his inspection of Egypt, some believe that Antinous took the opportunity to sacrifice himself in the Nile (i) to save Hadrian the shame of having an adult male lover and (ii) because he knew that those who died within Hapy's dark embrace would be declared immortal and could possibly be deified. As it was, the latter occurred, thanks to Hadrian, though not formally. It was because of the depth of Hadrian's mourning for Antinous that so many fine statues of Antinous have come down to us. I recently read somewhere that his is one of the most recognized faces to survive the ancient world, mainly because of all the statues made of him and also because it was so late in the Roman Empire.
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