Polanski Will Unearth 'Pompeii'

This one could be really good!

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Friday, February 2nd 2007 at 1:34 AM

Roman Polanski is still yet to return to the US because he would face sentencing on statutory rape charges, and guess what folks if he did return we never would have had The Pianist… or would we have? Yeah, I think another director could have made it, but could another director take on the $130 million budget for the dramatic thriller Pompeii of which Polanski is set to direct next? Yeah. Probably.

Anyway, I am not here to talk statutory rape of 13-year-old girls and directors on the run from U.S. law we are here to talk about Pompeii a film based on the bestseller of the same name by "Fatherland" novelist Robert Harris. Harris is writing the script and filming is already set to take place in Italy this summer with Polanski at the helm.

Variety tells us that the film's protagonist is a young engineer who has to repair an enormous aqueduct whose destruction threatens the Roman Empire. He finds himself enmeshed in politics and romance. The film takes place over three days and the final act is the volcanic eruption and the destruction of the aqueduct, which stretched 60 miles and served hundreds of thousands of people.

Polanski told the Hollywood rag, ""I got seduced by the writing… In general terms, when someone tells me to make a movie set in ancient times, I say it's not my cup of tea. But I liked that it was a thriller and I have read all of his books and there is such minute detail. He goes very far into the research."

Polanski's behavior aside I am actually interested in this one, it could be very good. Especially since they did hire an artistic director as opposed to a director like Roland Emmerich who would have taken this and made it more of a special effects film than a story.

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