New Boudica Film

[StuK]

Just wondering what you guys think if I were to start writing a new film slash biopic of Boudica. Any comments or ideas can be submitted to me here, my website

Edited August 2, 2006 by StuK

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

If you can manipulate the history for great action like Gladiator, sure why not. Because if you actually did write the actual events, it would be a major sad ending, because at the end of the movie, you would just have the Romans killing every single thing in wedge formation.

[phil25]

Well - an idea you might be able to work in:

 

I have always wondered why Boudicca died so conveniently quickly after the battle. She is not reported as a casualty, or as captured and executed. Suicide is a possibility.

 

But I have often wondered whether she was so injured by the Roman flogging she received when her daughters were raped, that she was an invalid, or semi-invalid throughout the campaign. Indeed, the Queen may have been simply the cause celebre of the rising - simply a figurehead carried in a litter before the tribesmen - rather than its actual leader.

 

She thus died of weakness and general ill-health when deserted by all her attendants after the defeat - or may even have died earlier. That would explain the way she fades out of the story so undramatically. No one knew her fate.

 

This weak, manipulated Queen might be a feature of a screenplay that put the emphasis on the tribal politics, and the machiavellian manoeuvreings of the chieftains, rather than the Queen. It might also come as a surprise to the public. But it would also give an excuse for a shocking (Mel Gibbsonian??) flogging scene.

 

If you want added irony - make Boudicca (as the widow of Prasutagus, ally of Rome) pro-Roman throughout, but unable to do anything to stop herself and her daughters being used as propaganda tools.

 

Just some off-beat thoughts.

 

Phil

[StuK]

The very quick prologue that I wrote is only 6 scenes long, but violent. If anyone can help me out with a tribal map of 1st Century England, I would be most appreciative.

 

Focussing on the Eceni scourge of Colchester and London

[phil25]

The very quick prologue that I wrote is only 6 scenes long, but violent. If anyone can help me out with a tribal map of 1st Century England, I would be most appreciative.

 

Focussing on the Eceni scourge of Colchester and London

 

 

Unless spellings have changed, were not Boudicca's people the "Iceni"?

 

Tribal maps should be easily avaialable in any history of Roman Britain - exactly what research have you done so far?

 

phil

[WotWotius]

The very quick prologue that I wrote is only 6 scenes long, but violent. If anyone can help me out with a tribal map of 1st Century England, I would be most appreciative.

 

Focussing on the Eceni scourge of Colchester and London

 

Click here for an exellent tribal map.

[StuK]

The very quick prologue that I wrote is only 6 scenes long, but violent. If anyone can help me out with a tribal map of 1st Century England, I would be most appreciative.

 

Focussing on the Eceni scourge of Colchester and London

 

 

Unless spellings have changed, were not Boudicca's people the "Iceni"?

 

Tribal maps should be easily avaialable in any history of Roman Britain - exactly what research have you done so far?

 

phil

 

Damn my Australian university education!!! We were always told that it was 'Eceni'.

[DecimusCaesar]

Isn't Mel Gibson already spear-heading a Boudicca film called 'Warrior' set for release next year? I don't think he's actually going to direct it though. Perhaps the movie won't be made at all seeing as Gibson has ran into a little trouble with the cops recently.

[StuK]

Isn't Mel Gibson already spear-heading a Boudicca film called 'Warrior' set for release next year? I don't think he's actually going to direct it though. Perhaps the movie won't be made at all seeing as Gibson has ran into a little trouble with the cops recently.

 

I think it might have been shelved. I'll give you guys a brief later in the week as to what I am planning

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

 

Click here for an exellent tribal map.

 

 

And what an excellent map it is too, a very good find

[Skarr]

The French graphic novel "Vae Victis" covers the story of one of her ancestors, as she battles Caesar and his legions by allying herself with various Gallic tribes. It is a tremendously exciting story, told in 15 volumes and is definitely worth reading for some ideas on how you can cover this, albeit at an earlier time.

 

The drawback - you need to know at least a little French, as English translations are not available at this time.

 

BTW, I think this series would make an excellent movie, with the right script. Caesar plays a prominent role throughout, which is in itself a plus, as he is such a charismatic figure and audiences would love to see the great man in his prime, in his victorious campaigns in Gaul. Most Hollywood films have centered on Caesar's later years, prior to his assassination.

 

I would definitely love to see a movie about the young Caesar, from early youth to his triumphs in Gaul and would end the movie with a footnote that he was later assassinated, as that has been covered so many times. A sort of epilogue in the last ten minutes of the film, just before the credits roll.

[phil25]

Skarr - how on earth (except in a Frenchman's imagination) does Boudicca fight the "young Caesar"?

 

Caesar died March 44 BC, Boudicca flourished 9if that's the word) c61 AD - around a hundred years later.

 

Or is this the "modern" approach to history (viz Iggulden) - anything goes so long as its exciting??

 

Phil

[Primus Pilus]

Skarr - how on earth (except in a Frenchman's imagination) does Boudicca fight the "young Caesar"?

 

Caesar died March 44 BC, Boudicca flourished 9if that's the word) c61 AD - around a hundred years later.

 

Or is this the "modern" approach to history (viz Iggulden) - anything goes so long as its exciting??

 

Phil

 

I read that it was an ancestor of Boudica, but I'm sure all the qualities (including the story of rape and torture) are probably quite similar. A convenient way to bring two historical icons into conflict I suppose. The good thing is, it may get people who read the story to investigate the actual history for themselves.

[phil25]

...it may get people who read the story to investigate the actual history for themselves.

 

or confuse them utterly.

 

I worry, as an historian, about the lack of regard for accuracy in modern media attempts to show the past. Simplification is one thing, absolute invention another - unless it is labelled as fantasy, of course.

 

Phil

[docoflove1974]

Skarr - how on earth (except in a Frenchman's imagination) does Boudicca fight the "young Caesar"?

 

Caesar died March 44 BC, Boudicca flourished 9if that's the word) c61 AD - around a hundred years later.

 

Or is this the "modern" approach to history (viz Iggulden) - anything goes so long as its exciting??

 

Phil

 

I thought all of the emperors called themselves (and were often called) 'Caesar'?