DDickey Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 Columbia Pictures has bought an adaptation of Anabasis, a memoir by Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was amongst a group of mercenaries hired by Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger to fight his brother Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia. What are everyones thoughts on this? Prediction: Hollywood will butcher it and mutilate ancient history--as per usual with good ol' Hollywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 Columbia Pictures has bought an adaptation of Anabasis, a memoir by Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was amongst a group of mercenaries hired by Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger to fight his brother Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia. What are everyones thoughts on this? Prediction: Hollywood will butcher it and mutilate ancient history--as per usual with good ol' Hollywood. Salve, DD. We agree; even so, bad publicity is better than no publicity at all. Do you remember the 1979 classic Walter Hill's film The Warriors? ("Come out to plaaay-hay!"); BTW, soon to be re-filmed by Tony Scott, with a tentative release date of 2010 and now set in LA instead of NYC. Maybe someone recalls some classical names within it (Cyrus, Cleon, Ajax). It was loosely based in a 1965 homonym novel by by Sol Yurick, itself loosely based on the Anabasis. In fact, one of the novel's main characters was constatly reading a comic book adaptation on Anabasis. Anyway, the film's plot line is much closer to Anabasis than the novel: the Warriors have to get home to Coney Island by travelling through territory controlled by hostile gangs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDickey Posted August 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 Columbia Pictures has bought an adaptation of Anabasis, a memoir by Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was amongst a group of mercenaries hired by Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger to fight his brother Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia. What are everyones thoughts on this? Prediction: Hollywood will butcher it and mutilate ancient history--as per usual with good ol' Hollywood. Salve, DD. We agree; even so, bad publicity is better than no publicity at all. Do you remember the 1979 classic Walter Hill's film The Warriors? ("Come out to plaaay-hay!"); BTW, soon to be re-filmed by Tony Scott, with a tentative release date of 2010 and now set in LA instead of NYC. Maybe someone recalls some classical names within it (Cyrus, Cleon, Ajax). It was loosely based in a 1965 homonym novel by by Sol Yurick, itself loosely based on the Anabasis. In fact, one of the novel's main characters was constatly reading a comic book adaptation on Anabasis. Anyway, the film's plot line is much closer to Anabasis than the novel: the Warriors have to get home to Coney Island by travelling through territory controlled by hostile gangs. Yeah, it never occured to me until I read that news brief that the Warriors was loosely based on Xenophon. Makes me want to re-watch it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 The Warriors[/i]? ("Come out to plaaay-hay!"); BTW, soon to be re-filmed by Tony Scott, with a tentative release date of 2010 and now set in LA instead of NYC. Yeah, it never occured to me until I read that news brief that the Warriors was loosely based on Xenophon. Makes me want to re-watch it. Some additional media gossip on the Warriors 2010 film: This project is categorized as being in production. None of the original characters will be used (except maybe Cyrus). None of the original gangs excluding the warriors will be used. The basic plot of the story (Walter Hill 1979 screenplay) will still be used. MTV is the production company remake it alongside with Paramount Pictures. BTW, The Warriors' video game (Rockstar Games) based on the 1979 movie was released on 2005. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Africanus Major Posted August 15, 2008 Report Share Posted August 15, 2008 Columbia Pictures has bought an adaptation of Anabasis, a memoir by Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was amongst a group of mercenaries hired by Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger to fight his brother Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia. What are everyones thoughts on this? Prediction: Hollywood will butcher it and mutilate ancient history--as per usual with good ol' Hollywood. Yeah Hollywood will probably butcher it. However, I will point out that we Romanphiles do not get much in the way of big screen entertainment,so I ,knowing that it wont be accurate,will sit back in a theater and enjoy the movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arminius Posted August 15, 2008 Report Share Posted August 15, 2008 (edited) I have read the Anabasis (English translation). I have watched The Warriors many, many times, and I own it on DVD. I have even played and finished the video game. But I didn't know a new Warriors movie was coming out until I read this thread! If it's going to be about street gangs in LA, then it probably won't reflect history too well. But then again Xenophon's version of events doesn't seem to reflect history too well, either. Ancient historians seemed to believe a different general's account of what happened, if I remember correctly. And the Anabasis did seem to be a work of apologia. It's been a while since I read the book, but I remember the gist of it being that the Greeks had to get by various enemies that stood in the way of their homeland, and usually they quickly took the higher ground, and the enemy backed off, allowing the Greeks to pass. It made me think that 'wow, history is basically the fight for higher ground.' Edited August 15, 2008 by Arminius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Sounds like an interesting project, but I wonder how hey'll handle it. Will it be another Gladiator or will it be a 300 rip off? It seems Hollywood is increasingly turning to Greece (Troy, Alexander, 300 etc) in recent years, and less attention is being payed on Rome in comparison. Still Xenophon's story is fascinating, so I hope the film producers will give it justice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryaxis Hecatee Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Hollywood is in no small part democrat and greece is their model while rome is more of a republican model, also in a period of fight with the east the greek model has more appeal than the roman one which has so many defeats against the east ( except for trajan of course ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Salve, Amici I have read the Anabasis (English translation). I have watched The Warriors many, many times, and I own it on DVD. I have even played and finished the video game. But I didn't know a new Warriors movie was coming out until I read this thread! If it's going to be about street gangs in LA, then it probably won't reflect history too well. But then again Xenophon's version of events doesn't seem to reflect history too well, either. Ancient historians seemed to believe a different general's account of what happened, if I remember correctly. And the Anabasis did seem to be a work of apologia. It's been a while since I read the book, but I remember the gist of it being that the Greeks had to get by various enemies that stood in the way of their homeland, and usually they quickly took the higher ground, and the enemy backed off, allowing the Greeks to pass. It made me think that 'wow, history is basically the fight for higher ground.' Actually, this book's original name is kind of a misnomer, because the Greek term ἀναβάσεως (Anabasis) refers to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country (ie, what we may call the prologue of Xenophon's book). So we should probably call it καταβάσεως (Katabasis), ie. an expedition from the interior to the coast of a country. From its very end, here comes a list of the "street gangs" that the Hellenes had to fought in their way back home (Book VII, cp. VIII, sec. XXV-XXVI): "The governors of all the King's territories that we traversed were as follows: Artimas of Lydia, Artacamas of Phrygia, Mithradates of Lycaonia and Cappadocia, Syennesis of Cilicia, Dernes of Phoenicia and Arabia, Belesys of Syria and Assyria, Rhoparas of Babylon, Arbacas of Media, Tiribazus of the Phasians and Hesperites; then the Carduchians, Chalybians, Chaldaeans, Macronians, Colchians, Mossynoecians, Coetians, and Tibarenians, who were independent; and then Corylas governor of Paphlagonia, Pharnabazus of the Bithynians, and Seuthes of the Thracians in Europe. The length of the entire journey, upward and downward, was two hundred and fifteen stages, one thousand, one hundred and fifty parasangs, or thirty-four thousand, two hundred and fifty-five stadia; and the length in time, upward and downward, a year and three months". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaecus Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Columbia Pictures has bought an adaptation of Anabasis, a memoir by Xenophon, a Greek soldier who was amongst a group of mercenaries hired by Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger to fight his brother Artaxerxes II for the throne of Persia. What are everyones thoughts on this? Prediction: Hollywood will butcher it and mutilate ancient history--as per usual with good ol' Hollywood. First of all, let's not forget that a movie is not a history work but instead art; it is in those "mutilations" that one needs to read what is the author's message Since 9/11, Hollywood has been revisiting the millenary East-West conflict through a number of movies: Alexander, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven and 300. It is interesting to notice that in the first three of them, the message was one of hope that such differences would eventually be surpassed. Thus, for example, the joint escape of Paris and Helen from Troy (something that never happened). However, in the most recent of those movies, 300, the message was different, showing skepticism regarding a possible co-existence; only through war differences could be solved. Let's wait for the trailer of the forthcoming movie to see if there are some indications regarding what is the message that the movie will transmit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanista Posted November 30, 2009 Report Share Posted November 30, 2009 You can't have "The Warriors" without the Baseball Furies. That's just wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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