Pompeii the Movie

[G-Manicus]

Oooo ... this would be coolius maximus.

[DecimusCaesar]

Last I've heard is that all of the actors have pulled out of the film as well due to the writers strike. There is a good chance this project could be put on an indefinate hold.

[Klingan]

What's the plot in the book? I've read quite a few Pompeii books but I can't remember the authors.

[DecimusCaesar]

What's the plot in the book? I've read quite a few Pompeii books but I can't remember the authors.

 

The book is by Robert Harris, the author of Imperium.

 

If I remember correctly, the book follows an aquarius called Marcus Attilius who is sent from Rome to see why the Aqua Augusta has ceased flowing. While staying in the countryside and towns around the bay of Naples, he gets involved with a ex-slave turned millionaire called Ampliatus (I think I got that name right) who basically runs the town. Attilius lusts after Ampliatus's daughter Corelia, although he's resigned himself on never geting her as she's being married off to Ampliatus' ex-master.

 

Attilius spends most of the book on the trail of the missing engineer of the local aqueduct after the man disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Along the way he meets Pliny the Elder and crosses paths with some of the seedier residents of the town. All the while he is convinced that something terrible is about to happen.

 

I quite enjoyed the novel, it is very evocative and well written although it might be too slow paced for some. If I remeber, I don't think that Vesuvius blows its top until well over 300 pages into the book. Then again, the eruption is not the point. My only wish was that the characters be better developed - but other than that I really enjoyed it.

Edited January 5, 2008 by DecimusCaesar

[Klingan]

Ah I've read that book too. It's rather entertaining.

[Primus Pilus]

Ah I've read that book too. It's rather entertaining.

 

Personally, Harris is among my favorite historical novelists. (I haven't read alot mind you, but he is quite good.) I'd be quite disappointed if this doesn't make it to the big screen.

 

By the by, any word out there about the second novel in his Cicero series?

[Faustus]

Points taken, Flavia. But why, then, are British actors always hired when gravitas is required?

 

I would agree that if we were to stick rigidly to authenticity, then we should have Italians - God forbid NOT Americans, who weren't even in the world at the time! This is the same with renditions of Shakespeare's plays - where the actors should be English or nothing! I could put up with Italians. Americans are so anachronistic in epics of the Classical world, that I cannot take them seriously. Perhaps the reason that the Brits are preferred is due to the Bard who penned one or two classical histories, hence setting a standard. Therefore, the Brits 'doing Classical' have passed into the canon. Perhaps it's sad, but there it is. Historically speaking, I cannot accept an accent from a nation with only a few hundred years of history. Yeah - I'm old fashioned. And rather like Augustus Caesar, who penned a similar thought in another thread, this is not said as a detriment to our trans-Atlantic cousins as a nation - merely as a theatrical yardstick.

 

This could run and run, so we should perhaps leave it here.

 

Hmm. . .I though it was the British accent which did the trick, because it passes for being

Edited March 18, 2008 by Faustus

[cornelius_sulla]

I read Thomas Harris' book and liked it. I don't have much faith in Hollywood (or Bollywood for that matter) doing it justice.

I'd like to see Robert De Niro do something togate, but I fear that he has lost currency and we'll see some vacuous pretty boy like Orlando Bloom in the lead to get bums on seats.

Not holding my breath, guys.