Think Empire but with nudity, sex, graphic violence and a better script. This sumptuous, spectacular 12-episode epic, filmed in the titular city at a cost of $100 million, leaves that other TV sword and sandal soap opera in the Italian dust.
Mixing historical figures with fictional characters, Rome picks up in 52 B.C. with Julius Caesar’s return to the city from his conquest of Gaul and covers the power struggle that ensues over the next seven years. Key figures include Julius Caesar, (Ciarán Hinds), Mark Antony (James Purefoy), Kenneth Cranham (Pompey) and Caesar’s manipulative niece Atia (Polly Walker), who schemes to seize power for her son Octavian (Max Pirkis).
But the tale gives equal time to a pair of plebeian soldiers, the dour Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd)-returning to his family after eight years at war–and gregarious Titus Pulllo (Ray Stevenson), two men who, as McKidd puts it, “find themselves accidentally at the epicenter of tumultuous events and immense change.”
Originally developed as a miniseries in 1998, this Rome was definitely not built in a day. Construction began at Cinecittà Studios in August 2003, using five acres of backlot and six soundstages. Filming spanned 14 months in 2004-2005, with 750 Italian extras supporting the British principal cast.
Everything from the costumes to the food to weird rituals like the bull’s blood shower Atia takes early on was meticulously researched. “It was very important to get the fine detail right so that you felt that you were in a real world and not in a costume drama,” says writer/co-creator/producer Bruno Heller.
Well, almost everything was authentic. That bull’s blood? “Cherry syrup,” Walker reveals, describing that scene and her various on screen sexcapades as scary. She got through the latter in true British fashion. “I just closed my eyes,” she says “and thought of England.
Rome airs on HBO Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT.
