Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil: Afterlife) has signed on to direct Pompeii, an disaster film set in ancient Rome as Mt. Vesuvius erupts and destroys the titular city. The vaguely Romanic Constantin Filmwill finance a reportedly large budget as scripted by Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler (Batman Forever). Summit Entertainment will distribute the film in America with plans to auction off Pompeii to foreign buyers at the Cannes Film Festival later this month. Pompeii reunites Summit, Constantin, and Anderson after The Three Musketeers. Anderson is in post-production on Musketeers preparing for release on October 14. Sources suggest Pompeii will shoot in spring 2012.
Set in late summer 79 A.D., Pompeii revolves around the slave of a shipping tycoon who dreams of the day he can buy his freedom and marry his master’s daughter. What the slave doesn’t know is that she’s already been promised to a corrupt Roman senator, while he’s been sold to another owner.
Just when things can’t get any worse, Mt. Vesuvius erupts with the power of 40 nuclear bombs. But the slave is trapped on a ship headed for Naples, separated from his love and best friend, a gladiator who is trapped in the city’s coliseum. As fire and ash destroy the only world he’s ever known, the slave is determined to get back and rescue them.
Of the thousands that died in the explosion, several hundred left their shape in the volcanic deposits around the city. During excavation, it was discovered that filling these cavities with plaster revealed human casts so detailed that the look of terror is evident on many. Thus creating the world’s most disturbing tourist attraction.
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