Hollywood plans stir Celtic ghosts

[Viggen]

Mel Gibson is guaranteed a panning for his forthcoming film on Britain's warrior queen Boudicca, experts say -- either from the feminists who have turned her into an icon, or from the historians for whom she remains an enigma. "Take any figure where there's been emotional investment and you're going to annoy someone," said folklorist Dr Juliette Wood. "We know so little about her and yet she has been turned into a meta-historical icon."

 

Boudicca, known also as Boudica and Boadicea, has become hot property in Hollywood, where no fewer than four scripts on her are in the works, among them a Dreamworks production called "Queen Fury". Scholars plucked Boudicca, whose name translates as "Victory," from historical obscurity during the 16th century. The little that is known about her has been gleaned from archaeological excavations and the Roman historian Dio Cassius.

 

full article at Reuters