Forum post gets a movie deal

[RangerPL]

It started as a hypothetical question, one of countless musings proposed by frequenters of the social news and conversation site. Soon, though, users at Reddit.com were enthralled by the equally hypothetical answer, and soon, Rome was hypothetically under siege.

Now, it's going to be a movie, nothing hypothetical about it.

Variety reports that Warner Bros has bought the rights to produce a film out of James Erwin's story, "Rome Sweet Rome," which began as a response to a Reddit pondering over whether a Marine unit could take down the entire Roman empire. The story, which Erwin will pen in screenplay form, brings a Marine Exploratory Unit to Rome in 23 BC, as a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar grows. They alter history, then have to put it back on track to return back to the present, where they were fighting in Afghanistan.

Erwin is an experienced writer, having penned encyclopedias and other manuals over the past decade. He received help and lots of ancillary material from Reddit users; as he told Screen Rant last month, as heat on the project was building, he feels quite lucky to be in this position.

"Here's the thing. I was very, very lucky to post what I did at the moment I did," he said. "It wasn't just the idea of coming up with just the right answer - if I'd posted the same text an hour later, everyone would already be bored with the question. They wouldn't have seen it and it wouldn't have blown up. So that was definitely a lightning-in-a-bottle situation."

For more, click over to Variety. To read the entire story Erwin created on Reddit, click here to download the PDF for free.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1010758.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Sweet_Rome#Plot

TL;DR: Someone from reddit asked if he could take on the entire Roman Empire with a Marine Expeditionary Unit. Someone else wrote a story based on that and a Hollywood studio approached him with a movie deal.

I think this is mind-blowingly awesome. The fact that a freelance writer on the internet gets to write a movie screenplay based on a forum post is incredible.

The movie doesn't sound bad either.

[Eble]

Sounds interesting.

I like the idea, the Marines would have a massive advantage in shock and awe, but once it came down to hand to hand fighting they would be slaughtered in pretty much no time.

If the Romans didn't ran from the field first, think the spanish and the Americas, heavly armed troops very few in numbered wiped out massive native armies.

[RangerPL]

Sounds interesting.

I like the idea, the Marines would have a massive advantage in shock and awe, but once it came down to hand to hand fighting they would be slaughtered in pretty much no time.

If the Romans didn't ran from the field first, think the spanish and the Americas, heavly armed troops very few in numbered wiped out massive native armies.

Yep, the problem is that in real war, the marines have a supply pipeline behind them that goes all the way back to the States. They would kick ass for a week or so until they burned up their fuel and used up their ammunition. But once they ran out, they would be reduced to the Romans' level of technology and slaughtered.

[froggyluv]

By Marine Unit do they mean the 2200 strong MEU? Thats heavy firepower and Romans would be devasted by WMD's tho in the end -Romans win by massive Marine contracted STD's.

[ziiip]

Lol what? Some marines travel back in time and shoot Ceaser in the nuts? Greeeeeeat idea.......

[Darkhorse 1-6]

There's already a thread about this, I think. I remember a fairly long discussion of it somewhere in Offtopic. The whole idea is interesting, and the stories were awesome, until Warner Brothers told him to stop writing it.

[Tonci87]

I think the MEU would win.
After the first battle, where they slaughter countless romans, nobody would dare to fight them again. They would be welcomed as thunder bringing gods riding on steel beasts that breathe fire.

[Beagle]

I see another nonsense movie on the horizon. This time it's not aliens but time travellers attacking earth. Bullshit. There is a ot of braindrain going on in Hollywood when they grasp at such hollow grounded forum stories.

Compared to this even Perry Rhodan is high literature.

Whats next, a USMC MEU vs. Sauron's dark army...or better...vs. the smurfs

[Dead3yez]

Need some more info first, before determining whether it'd be a completely brainless action-packed shooter or not.

Not expecting much so far, since a forum poster was chosen as the screen writer.

[KBourne]

Not expecting much so far, since a forum poster was chosen as the screen writer.

Then you need to read better, the forum poster it selves is a professional Free lance writer the story build evolved trough answers and questions of other forum participants. The writer is not chosen the story evolved and WB got interested, I have been reading the entire thing and in fact if WB keeps the original nature of the story this might get somewhere but we will have to see how far they keep it as the original.

I wonder why people need to tear down everything around here these days, criticism is something else if you ask me ...

kind regards