There is good news and bad news, movie fans. The good news is that we presumably did not all die in an intense volcanic explosion. The bad news, however, is that Paul W.S. Anderson has not yet come out to say he has given up on making a movie about an intense volcanic explosion. In fact, that film’s cast just got a little bigger.
Anderson will be bringing that most famous of volcano eruptions to the big screen with Pompeii, and the Spanish site Peliblog reports that Emily Browning will be joining the cast as the female lead opposite Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones), who was added to the cast at the end of last year. Browning is best known for leading the all-female cast of Sucker Punch, and recently popped up at Sundance in the Chilean thriller Magic Magic with Michael Cera. Though she hasn’t had much experience working with volcanoes, I’m guessing she’ll still be the most convincing aspect about this film.
Harrington will play Milo, a slave in love with his master’s daughter (Browning) who gets sold to another owner. As Mt. Vesuvius begins to erupt, Milo dangerously races through the city to rescue his new love as well as his gladiator best friend who’s trapped inside of the coliseum. The script was written by Batman Forever scribes Lee and Janet Scott Batchler with a few touch-ups done by Downton Abbeycreator Julian Fellowes. I’m guessing it will retain the realism of Batman far more than it will of the Abbey.
Pompeii will be the first non-remake and non-adaptation in Anderson’s career since 1998’s Soldier, with Kurt Russell. And to think he hit his prime with Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon and then immediately lost it. We’ll have to wait until 2014 to see if he reaches it again. But we have a pretty strong feeling he won’t.
