Here’s a chunk of optioned-project and development news for you, starting with the questionable (but not surprising) decision to make another Spartacus movie. GK Films mogul Graham King is developing a project that will evidently be a historically-based take on the legendary slave Spartacus, who led a rebellion against the Roman empire which lasted from 73 to 71 B.C.E. [Variety]
GK Films “pre-emptively” acquired a pitch by Michael D. Gordon, a writer with a “story by” credit on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (which means his initial script was heavily re-written, but he came up with the basic plot.)
The story has been filmed before: as the classic 1960 Stanley Kubrick film starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, a 2004 USA Network made-for-cable flick and the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. So why go back into this story? I’m sure you smart readers have heard of a 2000 movie called Gladiator, which starred Russell Crowe and single-handedly revived the long-defunct Roman Empire as a commercial setting for mainstream blockbusters. In the wake of that film, HBO aired the excellent series Rome, the sword-and-sandal/swashbuckling genre came back (Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Robin Hood, Game of Thrones), and Starz gave us their bloody, sexy take on the rebel slave.
Why does Hollywood love ancient Rome so much? That’s a big subject, so the short answer is: because the United States is the modern Roman Empire; Americans love period epics with blood and crazy-depraved-Roman sex; Americans can only take history lessons in two-hour chunks, preferably with swords. The original Spartacus is still one of the greatest Roman-set movies ever made, despite Kubrick’s disowning the thing because he wasn’t in absolute control. Basing the highly-fictionalized novel by Howard Fast, producer Kirk Douglas openly hired blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to script the film, effectively ending the U.S. government’s pointless Communist Hollywood witch-hunt. Even today, directors like Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven) and Zack Snyder (300) are still ripping Kubrick off – whether they’re willing to admit it or not. So this project will probably attract some big names, will probably make money, but isn’t likely to improve on the Kubrick’s initial treatment of this subject.
Moving on: Walden Media is developing a film based on the tongue-in-cheek-y graphic novel Rex Libris. [Variety] Written by James Turner, the comic was issued in quarterly installments by Slave Labor Graphics between 2005 and 2008. This synopsis is so deadpan, batshit-weird that I cannot improve upon it:
The series follows Rex Libris, head librarian at the Middleton Public Library — who’s over 1,000 years old and also the librarian at the Library of Alexandria. He’s also aided by an ancient god who lives beneath the library branch and travels to the farthest reaches of the galaxy in search of overdue books and to confront alien warlords who refuse to pay their late fees.
Walden Media is best-known for family-friendly “fun” like the Chronicles of Narnia film series and Journey to the Center of the Earth. This premise certainly sounds oddball, but expect the film to be comfortably PG.
And on the obscure end of the Marvel Comics spectrum, Waterman Entertainment has acquired the rights to and will adapt Strikeforce: Morituri, a lesser-known comic book
series about a group of humans who acquire superpowers in the wake of an alien invasion. With the planet stripped of resources, the super-powered humans fight back – all the while knowing that they will die within a year, an unfortunate side-effect of their new abilities. According to Waterman:
“The premise of ‘Strikeforce’ is one that hasn’t been explored in film before and we believe will resonate with today’s film and comicbook fans,” said exec VP Tucker Waterman. “In the spirit of Comic-Con and with the help of the distinguished Peter Gillis, we’re eager to bring this story to life.”
Gillis and co-writer Connor Cochran are adapting the series, which ran from 1986 – 1989. The ungainly subtitle, “morituri,” is a truncation of the famous Latin phrase Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant which is loosely translated as “Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!” It fits when considering this project’s premise… but the brand-new Waterman Entertainment better hope it doesn’t end up commercially prophetic. Just because it’s based on a comic book doesn’t mean anyone will realize this or even care. DC Vertigo learned this lesson the hard way when their obscure graphic novel The Losers was filmed last year with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana in the lead roles, and was directed by Hancock helmer Peter Berg. And it didn’t quite break even at the box office.
So like it or not, Hollywood will scrape the living shit out of the bottom of comic-book barrel for as long as possible. You’d better get used to it.
Do any of these projects sound interesting to you? Spartacus, maybe?