Roland Emmerich's Gladiator Drama Fills It's Cast Led By Anthony Hopkins
Peacock's highly-anticipated gladiator series, Those About to Die, has just added seven new names to its cast, which is being led by the great Anthony Hopkins.
Joining Hopkins, who was last month cast as the legendary Roman Emperor Vespasian, are Lorenzo Richelmy, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, Dimitri Leonidas, and Moe Hashim. Hughes will play Titus Flavianus, the elder son of Vespasian and apparent heir to the Imperial throne, and Macari plays the younger son Domitian. Richelmy has been cast as ambitious crime boss Tenax. Martins will play ruthless trader Cala, Hashim is her son Kwame, Pession is a politician and ruthless patrician Antonia, and Leonidas plays Scorpus, the preeminent charioteer of the age.
This epic series, brought to you by AGC Television, will be co-directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and Marco Kreuzpaintner (Beat), with a script written by the acclaimed Robert Rodat.
Inspired by Daniel Mannix's nonfiction book of the same name, Those About to Die is “an epic drama set in the complex and corrupt world of spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition. The series introduces an ensemble of diverse characters from all parts of Roman society who collide at the intersection of sports, politics and dynasties of the ancient world.”
Hopkin’s Vespasian is described as “battle tested, a rural upstart who claimed his throne after victory in a bloody ten-year civil war. He is aging and is despised by the Patricians jockeying for position in the Empire and looking to supplant his heirs to the throne the first chance they get.”
Source: Deadline