A few weeks ago, James Erwin answered a question on Reddit. Now Warner Bros. is planning to turn his answer into a film.
In September, Reddit user “The_Quiet_Earth” asked the following question on the site’s AskReddit section:
Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?
Erwin (using the handle “Prufrock451”) responded with a surprisingly well-crafted short story of a group of modern soldiers transported back to Ancient Rome and forced to rely on their training and modern armaments to survive against a much larger force of spear-wielding proto-Italians.
The tale was an immediate hit, spawning a Reddit subforum, and even fan-made trailers for its theoretical film adaptation.
As of this morning, that adaptation is no longer theoretical.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. liked the story so much that they have purchased rights to turn it into a film dubbed “Rome Sweet Rome.”
“Pic will follow the Marines as they’re flung into the past where they encounter one of the world’s most legendary villains and disrupt history. To return home, they have to set history back on the track they altered,” Variety claims.
This early in the production process, there is no word on when the film might hit theaters (nor who is starring in it, nor who might be sitting in the director’s chair).
Thus, feel free to speculate wildly in the comments. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Paul Verhoeven, mostly because I think this would make a wonderful satirical allegory for the horrors of Manifest Destiny vis a vis their visitation upon the cultural forebears of the concept by their sociopolitical offspring.
Plus, there would probably be nudity. That always helps.
Source: BoingBoing
