James Erwin, an author and two-time Jeopardy winner, saw that Reddit thread and responded with a comment that was pretty well thought out and extremely interesting. The Redditors loved it. Erwin kept writing with more and more stories until his concept got its own subreddit, Facebook fan page and popped on Reddit’s first page. From there, it caught the eye of Madhouse Entertainment’s Adam Kolbrenner who helped Erwin further develop the concept and then sold the idea to Warner Brothers. The movie, as its known now, is called Rome, Sweet Rome.
I love it. A measly comment could be transformed into an epic movie (you should read the whole thing, it’s awesome) but let’s hope the studios don’t go and ruin it for everyone by creating a bastard bubblegum version that replaces grit with a torrid love affair between Roman goddess and lowly soldier. Here’s a brief excerpt from Erwin’s original comments:
Sergeant McCandless watches the Romans advance, ignoring his warning shots and calls to halt. Their swords are drawn. He does not know the range of a Roman bow. He only knows that they are closing. He doesn’t know what kind of weapons they have. He doesn’t know how to talk to them. His nerves are frayed after four days without sleep, nightmares about his family ripping him out of the few minutes he can eke out before taking another go-pill.
“STOP!” he roars. “FUCKING HALT! NOW!” Five seconds.
“FIRE!”
It’s a really great read. I hope it’s going to be a really great movie. Reddit, you’ve done well.
[Reddit, Variety via BoingBoing, Image Credit: Rome Sweet Rome Facebook]
ggjjss
Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 7:43 PMSadly, this is not the least bit original. Arthur C. Clarke’s “Time’s Eye” has a small group of UN troops based in a similar region suddenly displaced in time. They find themselves interacting with Alexander the Great.
This fellow has fleshed out an entertaining scenario, but it’s not like he has hit upon something no-one has ever thought of.
Steve
Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 11:08 PMThis is fantastically stupid. Marines with modern weapons vs bronze age armies? A single modern high-powered bullet would basically render any Roman armour useless, gives marines unparalleled range and mobility. Even 1000:1, the inferior army would simply break before they even got into melee range.
This isn’t even a Custer’s Last Stand scenario. Modern soldiers with rifles, side-arms, grenades, tear-gas, helicopters? A single gunship could probably wreck the entire Roman army with impunity until it runs out of ammo because really… What are you going to do with a flying metal beast that lurks beyond bow-range and drops napalm on your face?
Reddit is stupid.
Spock
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 5:00 PMI get what you’re saying, but you’re vastly overestimating the amount of ammo and fuel that these guys have.
“Great, we shot a thousand Romans, but now our chopper is grounded and we’re out of frigging bullets, aaaaaand … there’s a million more Romans out there. Oops”.
Not saying it isn’t a silly premise for a movie, but you only need to read a Cracked article or two about surprising underdog victories from history to understand that it’s not always clear cut like this.
chugs
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 1:06 PMits all about context. If a Marine Expeditionary Unit was transported in time it could easily decimate a legion or the entire roman armed forces.
but could it sustain itself, and hold its conquests after its ammo and fuel were exhausted. well of course not.
there advantage is just a finite one.