Most people are aware (or at least have a vague idea) of the fate that finally befell Julius Caesar; being betrayed by his best friend Brutus and getting brutally stabbed to death on the floor of the Roman Senate; but there, are less who know what led him up to that point, and very few who know what Julius (probably the most famous of all Roman leaders), and Brutus (who comes slightly behind Judas, in the list of most well known untrustworthy friends), got up to as children; which is exactly why the series of novels by Conn Iggulden (which focus on the duos early years) proved so popular.
The books are a blending of sweeping historical knowledge, and pure fiction, but have proved to be quite engaging to its respectable audience, who all have cause to rejoice, as the first two books (out of the total four) are due to be adapted into a movie. The film will be called Emperor: Young Caesar (ditching both titles from the first and second books, The Gates of Rome, and The Field of Swords, respectively), and will focus on the pair during their formative years, where they were raised to become Roman soldiers.
The script has been written by Stephen Harrigan (Cleopatra), and William Broyles (Planet of the Apes), and will be directed by Burr Steers (17 Again); a man who has “always had an interest in Julius Caesar and his formative years”, and believes that the source material gives a “fresh, timely, and exciting takes on one of the greatest historical figures of all time.”
Two of the film’s producers; Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton; are no strangers to historic pictures, having worked on the fictional retelling of the Spartan’s Battle of Thermopylae (300), and are planning on turning the novels into a movie trilogy; with Conn’s other two novels, The God of War, and The Death of Kings, making up the latter two film’s, which will be focussing more on the pair’s romantic entanglements, and eventual shifting political interests that shift them down a dark and tragic path.
It’s still early days yet (even for the first film), and as the two planned sequels rely on the first actually getting made, and being successful, they are some time off. But for anyone that wants to relive the glory of Rome, there’s always Gladiator, or even closer to Emperor: Young Caesar, would be the BBC/HBO collaborative TV series, Rome, which actually touched some of the same ground regarding the relationship between Julius and Brutus.
