HBO\'s "Rome" to present more realistic look at the

[santell]

.

No-name actors are a good sign. Bankable stars mean that the majority of the budget went to hiring one or two people and then buying a ton of insurance for them

Yes, I agree. Besides, I don't think most top priced (US) actors can act better than no-names anyway. :lol: No loss there. They can (and should) hire classically-trained actors on the cheap, preferably Brits, IMO.

Hollywood keeps ignoring me.

Hollywood ignores anyone who knows a scintilla about historical Rome :?

BTW, I look forward to reading your Conan book soon. :wink: [/quote]

I agree about hiring British actors. Everyone knows that upper crust Romans spoke with a British accent!

[Neuraleanus]

[url:1p5jijko]http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article301393.ece[/url]

And, the show hasn't even aired yet.

[Theodosius the Great]

Great article, Neuraleanus. Thanks for posting it . But I'd like to quibble with a couple of things it stated.

From the article :

(Rome) mutated into an empire and collapsed under the weight of its own corruption.

What ever that means :? . Can't they ever just say that civil wars doomed the empire ?

(HBO) signed up a remarkable roster of British actors.... "They tend to think English actors sound more convincingly Roman."

Great news, IMO. What the boob is trying to say is that English (specifically "High London")accents give off an aura of belonging to the aristocratic class. I agree with that, but the main reason I wanted Brits to be cast was because they tend to be classically trained actors.

[Niedel]

The HBO website has a ton of new pics and historical info. The set sure looks pretty impressive.

[url:27ghrcb7]http://www.hbo.com/rome/behind/rome_revealed/rome.html[/url]

[Nathan Ross]

The show looks like being a weird and baffling mix of excellent and atrocious. The sets do indeed look fabulous, and the overall 'agenda' seems commendably serious. Some of the costumes, though, look like they've come from a bad barbarian film - perhaps John Milius did more than write the screenplay? :?

Casting choices are strange too - Cicero too young, Cato much too old. Brutus looks suitably 'Roman', but who is 'Quintus Pompey' supposed to be? (was the name Sextus thought too salacious?)

There seems to be an overusage of 'Nazi' eagle banners and motifs - Caesar's rise to power looks themed to the colours black and red. I guess they have to get the message across somehow, but does it always have to be the same old message?

[john m roberts]

This week's Newsweek magazine gives it a rave review. Here's hoping.

[Bill Altimari]

I just finished watching HBO's "making of" documentary. It was interesting in a variety of ways. Certainly it whets the appetite of anyone even remotely interested in the period, the teaser being just violent, colorful, and salacious enough to impel one to take a peek. Yet, as a longtime fan of British actors, I was amazed that I recognized so few of them. Not sure what the thinking was on that score. The tone of some of the series' makers was rather off-putting, insofar as they insisted that they are the first people in the hundred-year history of cinema to get Rome right, by which they evidently mean an Italian slum with chariots. The creators are so amusingly self-congratulatory that all one can do is smile. One wonders how many of them have heard of, let alone seen, Cabiria, the Italian silent film that began Roman epics in the movies.

On the other hand, one can only wish them well. Dramas like this are rare enough without pedants peeing in the makers' well. Successful shows beget similar shows, and that's all to the good. And, as Simon, Conn, and John will tell you, Roman novelists such as we usually get a sales bump when shows like this air, and that can only be described as very good indeed.

Bona Fortuna--
Bill

[Quintius Clavus]

I've been seeing lots of promos for it on the History Channel. I don't get HBO, so, unfortunately will not be able to actually see the program. The review in "The New York Times" this Sunday 8/21 was decidedly mixed. They compared it to "I Claudius" among other shows (including "The Sopranos") in their review.

Marcus Quintius Clavus/Quinton Johansen

[Neuraleanus]

I suspect that HBO Rome isn't too far off. The Rome of the 1st century BC was likely very much like Calcutta, a mix of the very wealthy with the very poor, violent, wild, dirty, and smelly.

[Ebusitanus]

I just watched all those extras at the HBO site...Oh man...have you seen those shields? And all that banner extravaganza...seems the have gone out of their way to make some sort of Nazi simbolism.

[Neuraleanus]

But, did not the Nazis attempt to copy the symbolism from ancient rome? Perhaps now is the time for Rome to take it all back (the symbolism that is, and get rid of the Nazi stink).

[Ebusitanus]

Yes, but if you check the extras about Caesar saluting the masses..look at those banners..I mean, not only the Red, white black thing, but I doubt there were Roman banners in such a size type..It all reeks artistic license.

[Gaius Octavius Drusus]

Avete Fraterii:

I had high hopes based on what I saw of the trailers for this HBO series. Then I saw the leather segmentata and that just about killed it for me. The hamatae looked good, but those Hollywood helmets and pilae with langets instead of rivets & plates were even more horrible. I am of the opinion that the screenwriters and the 'authenticity' experts should be made to run the fustuarium...several times.
I reserve judgment on EaE because I haven't seen enough of it to form an opinion.

Salve:

Gaius Octavius Drusus

[john m roberts]

These guys seem to have gone to great lengths to get the city right. It may just be that nobody has told them that the traditional Hollywood visualization of the roman military is crap.

[Neuraleanus]

[url:3f42tar5]http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/25/apontv.rome.ap/index.html[/url]

This is an interesting statement:

But they (the Romans) had an ancestral fear of kings, similar to the American fear to a degree -- pride in their liberty," says Heller, noting there are parallels to modern politics that can be read into the story lines.

I have this preverse vision of George Bush II in musculata and pteruges.