‘Romulus’ - historical drama series about founding of Rome

[AncalagonTheBlack]

‘Romulus’ TV Series a Dramatic Look at the Founding of Rome

 

 

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The birth of the city of Rome is a legend shrouded in mystery, violence, power, family drama, and the supernatural. In other words, it’s the kind of story that is perfect for a television series.

Romulus, a 10-part series airing later this fall, is a dramatic retelling of Rome’s 8th century BC origin story. But rather than tell the children’s story of Romulus, Remus, and the She-Wolf, this series focuses on the primitive tribes from which Rome was born. What’s more, it was filmed entirely in archaic Latin.

Set eight centuries before Christ, the series charts an archaic and brutal world where the tribes of the Lega Latina have lived for years under the leadership of the king of Alba, but drought and famine are threatening peace and the life of the cities.

ITV Studios is handling international sales. The show will debut in Italy on Sky.

“We are not actually narrating the legend of the she-wolf that saves the twins,” explains executive producer Marco Chimenz. “We do have a she-wolf but she’s a guerrilla leader, a woman who leads a group of outcasts to fight against the established power. She already has an idea of Rome, which is an idealised place that can free men and women from fear of nature, of gods and constant oppression and slavery. It’s a very modern ideology.”

Chimenz, who helped create the popular series Gomorrah and Suburra, worked with director Matteo Rovere of The First King to bring Romulus to the screen. This included re-creating the ancient city of Alba Longa as well as consulting with scholars on the Latin script.

 “We have all seen a lot of films and TV series about ancient Rome and they are spoken in English, very often British English, which has become the language for this kind of storytelling,” Chimenz says. “Doing this series in English was not realistic, but doing it in Italian was not realistic either, so we decided to recreate this language. The actors had to learn all the lines and dialogue by heart, which prevented them from improvising.”

 

 

 

[red snow]

Interesting choice. I guess it's mythological enough to give them plenty of leeway fleshing out the concept.

[The Grey Wolf]

I'll pass.

[Heartofice]

Could be good, I like they are doing it in latin, makes it a bit more interesting. Having given up after about 20 minutes of Barbarians because everyone seemed a little too clean and good looking I'm quite cautious of historical dramas about Rome!

[DireWolfSpirit]

Very intrigued at the involvement of someone instrumental in 2 shows that I've enjoyed strongly.

On 11/8/2020 at 6:45 AM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Chimenz, who helped create the popular series Gomorrah and Suburra,

 

[Toth]

On 11/8/2020 at 1:45 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

We do have a she-wolf but she’s a guerrilla leader, a woman who leads a group of outcasts to fight against the established power. She already has an idea of Rome, which is an idealised place that can free men and women from fear of nature, of gods and constant oppression and slavery. It’s a very modern ideology.

Yeah, that certainly sounds like a great idea.

I wonder whether they then include the part when Rome lacked women so Romulus kidnapped some from neighboring towns to rape and carry them off.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Toth said:

Yeah, that certainly sounds like a great idea.

I wonder whether they then include the part when Rome lacked women so Romulus kidnapped some from neighboring towns to rape and carry them off.

Not to the mention the idea that Rome was established to free people of constant oppression and slavery is laughable.

I suppose the tribes of central Italy may have been that primitive at one point, but there's nigh a hint of the Etruscans just to the north, or the Greeks to the south.

5 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Could be good, I like they are doing it in latin, makes it a bit more interesting. Having given up after about 20 minutes of Barbarians because everyone seemed a little too clean and good looking I'm quite cautious of historical dramas about Rome!

Eh? I quite liked that the Germans were shown wearing colorful clothing, and not the cliche furs and drab clothing. That idea is pure modern misinterpretation perpetuated by Hollywood. Sure, some of the actors good looking, but really not that many, just the main three.

[Ran]

The trailer linked above threw me x because it was dubbed over in Italian, and made me wonder if they had abandoned the Latin idea. But no, apparently an Italian-produced show featuring Italian actors can't have anything but Italian...

Started watching it for a moment on HBO Nordic, and yeah, way too primitive. Feels like Northern Europe of that era, moreso than the more developed Italy that would have existed in the era.

The Latin is a nice touch, though.

[Clueless Northman]

Like Ran, I was like "WTF, that's not Latin, that's Italian". Found it in archaic Latin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsNeDo3yhFY

But as said, Latin people were a bit more advanced than that by that time. They weren't Slavic or Nordic 750BC people. The design of the trailer would've worked for, maybe, Dark Ages Italy or Greece, 1100BC. I mean, when Rome was founded, Etruria had plenty of advanced towns, Campania had some as well. And just to show how fast urban areas could develop in Italy, Rome was definitely the biggest city outside Greek areas when the monarchy fell, if what Livy says of its power and what other report about its population (way above 100.000 people already).