New & Forthcoming Movies

NEW, FORTHCOMING, & ONLINE
ANCIENT WORLD MOVIES

(Got a new item or an update? Please let Steven know!)

I. Current or Coming in 2010:

The latest in this year’s bonanza of movies with an Ancient World theme: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Think Harry Potter with Greek gods—the studio obviously did, since the first Potter director, Chris Columbus, was assigned to direct. Steven caught it opening night, and loved it: “This movie boasts all the advantages of a big-budget Hollywood production—terrific special effects, excellent storytelling, and perfect casting. Uma Thurman as Medusa? Yessssss!” Logan Lerman plays the teen who discovers he’s the demigod son of Poseidon (Kevin McKidd of Rome). Sean Bean is Zeus, Rosario Dawson is Persephone, Steve Coogan is Hades, and Pierce Brosnan plays the centaur Chiron. See the trailer here. The movie is based on the fantasy novel by Rick Riordan, first in series that’s insanely popular with younger readers. Will there be a sequel? The box office will decide.

Warner Bros. has high hopes for Clash of the Titans, as attested by their decision to release in 3D and saturation advertising during the Winter Olympics. Release date is April 2. Avatar star Sam Worthington plays Perseus, the son of Zeus who matches wits with Medusa. The sets look spectacular, and judging from the trailers, the new film has an old-fashioned monster-movie feel surprisingly faithful to the original 1981 Clash of the Titans, which featured the last hurrah of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion special effects. Release the Kraken...again!

How did Steven miss this? The Canadian animated series Class of the Titans debuted back in 2006, with tales of seven teenagers descended from ancient Greek heroes; they alone can thwart the nefarious schemes of the wicked god Cronos. It’s equal parts Percy Jackson + Clash of the Titans + Disney’s Hercules. The Season 1/Volume 1 DVD is now available; episodes can also be watched online or downloaded at Amazon.

How’s this for a cross-cultural multi-media mashup: an anime movie (with six different directors) based on a video game based on the first part of The Divine Comedy? Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic is out on DVD. Don’t expect faithfuless to the original 14th-century poem about a visit to the nine circles of hell (with numerous references to Classical literature and famous figures from antiquity); do expect wild visuals and grotesque violence. You can just catch of a glimpse of the Roman poet Virgil, Dante’s guide, in the trailer.

Starz has launched its 13-hour series Spartacus: Blood and Sand; you can watch Episode 1 online at the official site. Steven reports: “It’s all very porny and ultra-violent, with lots of demeaning sex and vulgar language and oceans of slo-mo blood spatter; imagine the bastard child of 300 and Rome. Also, it seems there was a lot of steroid use in ancient Rome.” Andy Whitfield plays the title role, but most of the heavy lifting in the acting department is done by John Hannah and Lucy Lawless as a husband-and-wife team of power-hungry patricians. Amazon is already taking pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-ray sets, and there’s also a companion series of graphic novels (issue #1 at right).


To complement their new Spartacus: Blood and Sand series, Starz has launched a companion motion comic under the same title. See a trailer here. You can read the synopsis and download installments (beginning with Episode 1, “Upon the Sands of Vengeance”) at

Steven was glued to the set for the 10-part series Clash of the Gods on The History Channel, an exploration of Greek mythology, Norse sagas, and Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Episode titles: “Zeus,” “Hercules,” “Hades,” “Minotaur,” “Medusa,” “Odysseus: Curse of the Sea,” “Odysseus: Warrior’s Revenge,” “Beowulf,” “Tolkien’s Monsters,” and “Thor.” Watch a clip here. The 3-disk DVD releases on March 16, 2010; episodes can be downloaded now at

Agora, Steven’s most eagerly anticipated Ancient World film, will have a US release in the first half of 2010. Photo above: director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others, The Sea Inside) with Rachel Weitz, who stars as Hypatia, the scientist-scholar who ran afoul of the Christians in Egypt in 391 A.D. The film features an extraordinary recreation of ancient Alexandria, a city seldom depicted in movies. See a trailer and much more at the official site. If you have an update about the US release, please let Steven know! (By the way, has anyone out there read the novel Remembering Hypatia by Brian Trent?)


David Wyler, son of director William Wyler (who won an Oscar for Ben-Hur in 1959), is producing a Ben-Hur miniseries for Easter (early April), 2010 broadcast on ABC. Joseph Morgan (above right) plays the title role. The cast also includes Kristin Kreuk (above left), Ray Winstone, and Alex Kingston (who last ventured to the Ancient World to play Boudica in Warrior Queen).

Centurion stars Michael Fassbender as one of a handful of survivors after the Roman Ninth Legion is destroyed by savage Picts (including Olga Kurylenko) north of Hadrian’s Wall in A.D. 117. Neil Marshall directs. This movie appears to offer head-on competiton to the Tatum Channing vehicle The Eagle of the Ninth, which draws on exactly the same historical setting. See a 90-second on-set featurette here. See a trailer here. UK release date is April 23; if you know the US release date, please let Steven know!

Ancients Behaving Badly is History Channel’s latest docu-mashup of forensic second-guessing, over-the-top narration, lurid cartoon art (like this impalement from the Attila episode—yikes!), and, yes, even some history. Steven says the series is “marred by sloppy methodology and minor errors—such as the assertion that Nero’s wife Poppaea was an ex-slave (confusing her with Nero’s mistress, Acte)—but I certainly approve the show’s indictment of so-called ‘great’ figures of history as mass murderers. I love the end of each show when the subject is placed on ‘the Ancients Behaving Badly psychograph’—an X axis from goal-driven killer (Caesar) to psychopathic murderer (Caligula), and a Y axis measuring individual pathologies (like Nero’s off-the-chart ‘histrionic personality disorder’). The episode about Hannibal debunks the myth that he was a military genius, while the devastating portrait of Alexander strips any grandeur from the Great.” Also in the line-up: Cleopatra and Genghis Khan. The DVD releases on May 25, 2010; episodes can be downloaded now at


Jake Gyllenhaal plays Prince Dastan in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, scheduled for release on May 28 2010. It’s a fantasy set in 6th-century Persia, based on the popular video game. Mike Newell directs. See more pix of Jake here.

Channing Tatum will star in the upcoming screen version of Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic novel The Eagle of the Ninth, about Roman soliders in Britain who venture north of Hadrian’s Wall to recover a lost eagle standard. Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald is directing from a script by The Last King of Scotland collaborator Jeremy Brock. Look for release in summer 2010. Sutcliff’s book was previously dramatized by the BBC in 1977. For more Roman mayhem in ancient Scotland, see the items elsewhere on this page about Centurion and Mortis Rex.

Move over, Perseus! Henry Cavill (seen here in Showtime’s The Tudors) will star as Theseus in Dawn of War (previously titled War of Gods), an epic set in the world of Greek myth from director Tarsem Singh (who last ventured to the Ancient World with the Alexander episode in The Fall). Look for release (maybe) late in 2010.

In Prisoners of the Sun, an archaeological expedition discovers a lost city beneath a pyramid and re-awakens the gods of ancient Egypt. A visitor to this site who saw the trailer suggests it “looks like a Mummy movie on Prozac.” Director Roger Christian won an Oscar for Star Wars art direction and a nomination for Alien (so far, so good), but also directed Battlefield Earth (uh oh!)—so is this heading straight to DVD, or straight to oblivion? If you have release information, please let Steven know!

II. Coming in 2011 and Beyond:

Look for a new movie version of Hercules based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, aiming for release in 2011. (After the muscular success of 300, it was inevitable that Hollywood would give us more visions of the Ancient World directly based on comic books.) Peter Berg (Hancock) may direct. Above: cover art for issue 5. At right: the complete graphic novel by Steve Moore and Admira Jiwaya.

Steven Soderbergh is set to direct Cleo, a 3-D musical for release in 2011. Although the story has been oft-filmed (most famously with the 1963 Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor in the title role and Richard Burton as Antony), 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, with songs by the group Guided by Voices. Catherine Zeta-Jones has been cast as Cleo, and Ray Winstone as Caesar; Hugh Jackman has been rumored for Antony.

The Ancient World monster movie Mortis Rex (Latin for “King of the Dead”) is set to begin production in 2010. In 122 AD, a disgraced Roman warrior, sent to defend a garrison in remote Scotland from a spate of mysterious killings, must unite with the local Druids to vanquish a terrifying supernatural beast. The project is the brainchild of Hellboy co-writer Peter Briggs, who will make his directorial debut. The setting (Hadrian’s Wall and beyond) is similar to Centurion and The Eagle of the Ninth. Concept art above by Stuart Jennett.

Ralph Fiennes (who plays Hades in Clash of the Titans) will make his directing debut and play the title role in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. It’s the tale of a Roman warrior driven from the city who returns to conquer it; only his mother and wife can hope to save Rome. (The story forms a major chapter in Steven’s novel Roma.) The good news: Gerard Butler plays Coriolanus’s enemy-turned-ally, Aufidius. Shakespeare scholars make much of the erotic sparks between Coriolanus and Aufidius; what sort of chemistry will we see between Fiennes and Butler? The bad news: Fiennes is reportedly making a “contemporary version” (i.e., not set in ancient Rome). Filming begins in Serbia in 2010. (Image: Coriolanus, Act V, Scene III, engraved by James Caldwell from a painting by Gavin Hamilton.)

According to Variety, Spanish auteur Julio Medem (Sex and Lucía) will direct Pericles and Aspasia, based on one of antiquity’s great love stories, between the 50-year-old Pericles, ruler of Athens in its fifth century B.C. heyday, and the 24-year-old Aspasia, a free-thinking, sexually liberated beauty who was also a skilled rhetorician. Budgeted at $15-20 million, the English-language movie begins pre-production in spring 2010. (Has anyone out there read the recent novel by Karen Essex about Aspasia, Stealing Athena?)

III. In the Works • Rumored • On the Shelf:


Young Alexander the Great, about the conqueror’s teenaged years (think “Alexander 90210”), stars Sam Heughan (right) as Alexander and Paul Telfer (of Hercules and Spartacus) as Hephaestion. This movie has been in the can since 2007; has there ever been any DVD or theatrical release? If you have an update, please let Steven know!

Will Leonardo DiCaprio play I, Claudius? According to Hollywood Reporter, rights to Robert Graves’s novel were obtained by producer Scott Rudin; DiCaprio and screenwriter William Monahan are “circling the project.” (Derek Jacobi played the stuttering emperor in the BBC miniseries I, Claudius in 1976.) Got an update? Please let Steven know!

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.” Will Angelina play Penelope? Release is targeted for 2012. (Photo: Brad Pitt as Achilles on the set of Troy.)

Will there be a feature film follow-up to the TV series Rome? Executive producer and scripter Bruno Heller has such a project in development with the working title Bona Dea. If all goes well, filming will take place in 2010 for release in 2011. The story broke here; read an update and watch a brief interview with actor Kevin McKidd (Vorenus) here.

Coming down the chimney one of these years? 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 state religion of the Roman Empire. The movie has been in production for a few years now, with no firm release date. Above: a shipboard scene.

Gianni Nunnari, producer of Alexander and 300, has more irons in the Ancient World fire. Along with Dawn of War (see above), Nunnari is talking about a prequel to 300 (to be based on Frank Miller’s upcoming graphic novel about the battle of Marathon, Xerxes) and Odysseus, in development. The latter is not the Brad Pitt futuristic Oddysey project (see the item elsewhere on this page). Will it be a full-blown Ancient World epic? If you have details, please let Steven know!

As recently as March, 2009, the web buzzed with talk that Scarlett Johansson would star in The Amazon Warrior, the tale of a gladiatrix who exacts vengeance on the army that destroyed her homeland, circa 200 B.C., with a screenplay by the team of Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain (scripters for Outlander and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans). But lately, no news. Got an update? Please let Steven know!

The grapevine has been buzzing for years about John Boorman’s ambition to film Marguerite Yourcenar’s classic novel Memoirs of Hadrian. The last round of rumors posited 007 star Daniel Craig as Hadrian; no word on who might play Antinous, the young lover deified by the emperor after drowning in the Nile. For the ultimate in Antinous worship, visit The Sacred Antinous. To see videos about Hadrian by the British Museum, click here. Got an update? Please let Steven know!

Vin Diesel long ago announced his intention to make his directorial debut and star as Hannibal the Conqueror, the Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps with elephants to menace Rome, working from a script by Oscar-winner David Franzoni (Gladiator, King Arthur) based on the novel Hannibal by Ross Leckie. (Victor Mature played the role in the 1960 Hannibal, and Alexander Siddig starred in a 2006 BBC telemovie; see item below.) Will Vin’s dream come to fruition? If you’ve got an update, please let Steven know!

Finally located on US DVD: Hannibal, a 90-minute British docudrama starring Alexander Siddig, which first aired on BBC in 2006. With no fanfare at all, the movie appears as an extra on disk 3 of the DVD set Warriors (which also includes spectacular episodes about Spartacus and Attila the Hun.)

Odysseus: Voyage to the Underworld premiered on SyFy Channel in 2008 and showed again in August 2009. Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep in The Mummy) plays the Greek hero in this “missing chapter” from The Odyssey with hunky Steve Bacic, a pair of stunning goddesses, and lots of flying monsters. If you know of a DVD release, please let Steven know.

Once upon a time it was announced that Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Chinatown) would direct a big-budget screen adaptation of Robert Harris’s best-seller Pompeii. But Polanski eventually pulled out, deciding instead to collaborate with Harris on a screen version of the author’s political thriller The Ghost, releasing in 2010. Will Pompeii ever erupt on movie screens? If you have info on the current status of the project, please let Steven know!

When in Rome...check out 3D Rewind Rome, playing in a theater near the Colosseum. The 30-minute virtual-reality guided tour of the city circa 310 AD includes a walk through the teeming Subura, a forbidden peek at the Vestals in their temple, and a gladiator combat with the emperor Maxentius presiding.

For otherwise impossible-to-find DVDs, check out Maximus Media in Canada. Their historical catalogue includes The Last Roman (aka Struggle for Rome) from 1968, starring Orson Welles as Justinian; the uncut 9-hour version of the 1985 miniseries A.D.; and the 1972 Charlton Heston version of Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra.

From the introduction to Seneca: Four Tragedies and Octavia, by E. F. Watling:

Cicero, at the festival celebrating the opening of Rome’s first permanent theatre, complained of the pathetic performances of old-fashioned actors past their prime, and of the spectacular ostentation which had been imposed on the old tragedies: “Who wants to see six hundred mules in Clytaemnestra or three hundred goblets in The Trojan Horse, or a battle between fully equipped armies of horse and foot?”

What would Cicero have made of 300?

From Achilles to Zeus: Stephen Moss, film writer for The Guardian, offers an A-Z guide to Ancient World movies. His spot-on entry for the letter S: “Slaves: Notable by their absence in films about Sparta, even though they were the bedrock of Spartan society. Presumably acknowledgment of Sparta’s large slave population would sit oddly with a portrayal of a heroic society that valued freedom...” Click here to read the entire alphabet.