BrunoHeller Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Remember a little story we ran back in December where Rome writer Bruno Heller revealed plans to bring the series to the big screen? According to Ray Stevenson and MovieWeb, it's actually gone from "a smoke and mirrors rumor" (his words) to something that's actually happening: "The script is in full development. As you are probably aware, this is a pretty strange process. We could go into production in a year, or it could be as quick as six months. Who knows? It will happen. At least it is no longer a rumor. From what I have heard, they are nearing the end of script development. We shall see. We shall see."

Granted, scripts are written every single day and never ever filmed, but they're supposedly eying a release date of 2010. Even without Heller's script in hand, Stevenson is aboard and ready to play Titus Pullo again. "I can't wait to dust off the cobwebs of old Pullo. The guy is going to come in with a high body count. I love Pullo. I love him to pieces. I had such a great time playing him. And I got to do it in Italy and Rome. He is very special to me. He is a very special part of my history. I was very blessed to get that part."

I would love it if this became a reality, but I'm perplexed as to what it would tackle historically, as the rest of Augustus Caesar's reign was relatively calm. Titus Pullo could certainly help expand the Empire (and the gory mischief he would get into would be a movie in and of itself) but it would lack the political punch of the series. Perhaps they can fudge the years a bit (hey, it's Hollywood history) and put Pullo in Palestine after all ...

Maybe all roads do lead to Rome. According to The Hollywood Reporter and creator Bruno Heller, there's actually talk of continuing the brilliant HBO series on the big screen to wrap up all the historical loose ends caused by the series' abrupt cancellation. (Something which HBO now thinks was a big mistake. Between that and passing over Preacher, they're rather low in my esteem right now.)

Heller admits the talk is, at the moment, just talk. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off." Heller wouldn't discuss movie plot plans, but the next step for Rome was Augustus Caesar having to deal with a certain carpenter from Judea -- with a twist typical of the series.

Fans of the show will probably weep a little at Heller's unrealized plans -- Lucius Vorenus' off-camera fate wasn't as definite as we might have thought, and we would have gotten a whole season of Egyptian debauchery. "I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end," Heller said. "The second was going to end with death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There's certainly more than enough history to go around."

A Rome movie is probably nothing but a dream -- anything more than a whisper, and it will vanish, it is so fragile. But cancellation is no longer a death knell, and while they can't give me back the lost season of Antony and Cleopatra, I'm always up for more bread and circuses.