New & Forthcoming Movies 2018 Archive

ANCIENT WORLD MOVIES
& TV SHOWS
RELEASED IN 2018

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

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Go to archive pages for 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017
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141 A.D Mission in Dacia opened July 22, 2018 in Romania. A portentous comet and a deadly plague send a Roman centurion on a misison to the mysterious Serpent Mountains beyond the empire’s frontier, into territory ruled by the last free Dacians. Trailer at the official facebook page here. Available to watch via Amazon Prime.

The PBS series Ancient Invisible Cities premiered August 29, 2018 in the US with three episdoes exploring the “mysteries and secrets” (isn’t it always so?) of Cairo, Athens and Istanbul. Presenter Darius Arya’s relentless gee-whiz enthusiasm irritates; the astounding VR fascinates. (BBC appears to have broadcast the same series in the UK…but with Michael Scott rather than Darius Arya as presenter.) Official PBS page with streaming info and clips here; BBC page here.


Pompeii’s Final Hours: New Evidence premiered May 30 4, 2018 on the UK’s Channel Five. The 3-part documentary challenges “what we think we know about the end of Pompeii. Bettany Hughes, Raksha Dave and John Sergeant join a live dig, forensically scan victims, and learn how Roman life has survived for 2,000 years.” Viewers in the UK can stream the series at My5.

Is that a wine-maddened maenad I see? Why no, it’s globe-trotting scholar Bettany Hughes, presenting Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy, first broadcast on April 4, 2018 on BBC4. Since Bacchus (aka Dionysus) plays a rather important role in his novels Roma and The Throne of Caesar, Steven was eager to see how Hughes approached the strange and twisting tale of the twice-born god of many names. Happily, Hughes doesn’t shy away from the darker sides of Dionysus. Official page with streaming info and clips here.

A fourth season of Plebs is coming to the UK’s ITV on April 2, 2018. It’s one of Steven’s guilty pleasures, but brace yourself for a major cast change. Joel Fry, who played Stylax, has left the show. The trio of leads (left to right) is now newcomer Jonathan Pointing as happy-go-lucky Jason, Ryan Sampson as the squirrely slave Grumio, and Tom Rosenthal as the easily flustered Marcus. Carry on, plebs!


Paul, Apostle of Christ opened in the US on March 23, 2017. James Faulkner plays the title role; Jim Caviezel stars as Luke. Seen above: Olivier Martinez as the Roman persecutor Mauritius, in a decidedly pagan moment of widescreen wonder. Official page here.

Mary Magdalene opened in the UK on March 16, 2017, with no US release date yet announced. The movie is director Garth Davis’ follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Lion. Rooney Mara plays the woman who becomes a follower of Jesus, played by Joaquin Phoenix (whose resemblance to Charles Manson is surely unintentional). Despite the cringe-factor that Harvey Weinstein was among the producers, the Times of London says that “this sometimes moving, sometimes rather dull film…is the New Testament told through the feminine gaze of Jesus’s 13th disciple…if this is the Me Too Bible movie, it can be a bit meh too.….The whole thing is very tasteful and restrained, full of whispered dialogue delivered by candlelight and campfire, and gilded sunset shots of Mary taking in the fishing nets amid crashing waves.” Trailer here.

Decidedly offbeat: The BBC documentary Akala’s Odyssey, first broadcast February 17, 2018. From the program’s page at BBC: “Writer and hip-hop artist Akala voyages across the Mediterranean and beyond to solve some of the mysteries behind Homer’s monumental poem, the Odyssey…Along the way, he finds out what Homer’s works may have sounded like to their first audiences, discovers how the rhythm of those ancient words connect to the beats of modern hip-hop and comes face to face with the characters from the masterpiece.…Akala has undertaken this quest as part of his mission to compose his own response to the Odyssey—a new hip hop track called Blind Bard’s Vision, which turns the tale on its head all over again.”

Co-produced by Netflix and BBC from script by David Farr (The Night Manager), the 8-hour series Troy: Fall of a City debuts February 17, 2018 on BBC. Netflix will stream the show internationally. Casting is multi-culti colorblind, so that the racial mix of ancient Greece and Troy (and Olympus) is surprisingly similar to that of modern Britain. Farr says: “Fall of a City aims to convey in all its emotional richness, the effects of war, and the toll taken on city and family by the horrors of siege. Though one of Europe’s oldest stories, it could not be more sadly pertinent today.” A £2,000,000/episode budget promises big effects—including appearances by the gods and goddesses. Above: David Gyasi as Achilles; Louis Hunter and Bella Dayne as Paris and Helen. Official BBC page here.

The recent wave of Bible movies has slowed to a trickle, but you didn’t think it would pass without a new production of Samson, did you? This crowd-pleasing mix of muscles, misogyny, and mayhem has been a staple of the movie biz since the silent era. The Hebrew strongman’s latest incarnation is Taylor James, whose previous credits at IMDb show him playing “Potwasher,” “Stag,” “Centurion,” “Big Simulant Advisor,” “Atlantean Military Messenger,” and “Gym Assistant.” Delilah is Caitlin Leahy, whose previous roles include “Receptionist,” “Pretty Woman,” “Victim,” “Reporter #2,” “Vermillion #4,” and “Call Girl #1.” Produced by Pure Flix, purveyors of Christian entertainment, the movie opens in the US on February 16, 2018. Several trailers are up at IMDb.


Mary Beard resorts to graffiti to suggest that Caesar coined the “original soundbite” with his famous line, “Came—Saw—Conquered!” in Julius Caesar Revealed, a BBC 1-hour doc that debuts 12 February 2018. Official page (with preview clips) here.

Britannia, a 10-part miniseries set in AD 43, premieres in the UK and Ireland on Sky/NowTV on January 18, 2018 and in the US streaming via Amazon Prime on January 26. Brutal Roman invaders encounter daunting Druids and rustic Britons who will have none of it. (For you League of Gentlemen fans, think: “This is a local island, for local people!”) “Terrifyingly bonkers!” raves The Guardian. Your choice of trailer music includes Donovan’s mellow “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (here) or raving-mad “Psycho” by Muse (here). Carry On, Britannia!

In 2011, Channing Tatum starred in The Eagle, a big-screen version of Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic novel The Eagle of the Ninth, about a young Roman commander in Britain who ventures north of Hadrian’s Wall to recover the eagle standard lost by his father. That release conjured memories of a long-ago series broadcast by the BBC in 1977—a prominent item on Steven’s Wish List page. At long last, the 6-part mini-series of The Eagle of the Ninth will be released on Region 2 DVD in the UK on 15 January 2018.