It would seem Paul WS Anderson has been watching a lot of quality telly as he gathers the cast for his latest action adventure pic Pompeii. He already has Kit Harington from Game Of Thrones and has now scored Mad Men’s Jared Harris to co-star.
Pompeii takes place in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, just as the huge volcano is about to blow its lava-ly top. Harington is Milo, a slave-turned-Gladiator who has to make his way back into the titular city to save his true love, Flavia (Sucker Punch’s Emily Browning), the daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been betrothed against her will to a corrupt Roman general.
We could see Harris as a scheming general, but in fact he’ll be the tradition-happy father, Lucretius, who seems only to happy to marry his daughter off to some scummy army type. Will Milo make it in time to save her and a fellow gladiator from the terrifying, sizzling flow? Will Lucretius ultimately sacrifice himself to save the spirit of love? Will co-writer Julian Fellowes indulge his tendency to kill off key characters in the middle of the running time (WHY DOWNTON WHY)? Answers to these questions and more will have to wait until Anderson has made the 3D movie and released it next year.
Harris has been enjoying a flourishing film career since his tenure on Mad Men ended. He was most recently seen in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, and will star in new Hammer horror The Quiet Ones and The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, which arrives on August 23.