After one abs-tastic image of leading man Kit Harington and a volcanic teaser trailer (lurking at the bottom of the page), some new pictures of Paul W.S. Anderson’s new action pic Pompeii have arrived online courtesy of USA Today.
Harington is Milo, a Celtic slave gladiator who is in love with noblewoman Cassia (Emily Browning). That's tough enough, but there’s one other small obstacle to his romantic dreams: she’s been promised in marriage to a nasty senator played by Kiefer Sutherland. Oh, and there’s the inconvenient fact that Milo is shipping out just as Mount Vesuvius blows its belching top and the city of Pompeii is threatened with a lava flow and 20 feet of ash. The course of true love etc, etc...
Sutherland in particular seems to relish the idea of a big film after years spent as Jack Bauer on 24. "It's been a long time since I did a movie this big in scope," he tells the paper. "There are amazing computer effects, but only a third of the set was green screen. The rest was huge props, big sets, elaborate costumes, which I love."
He also sees the relevance of the underlying disaster movie elements: "Pompeii is unbelievably relevant. I've seen more natural disasters in the last five years than I have in my entire life. The film isn't a history lesson, but it raises real issues that I think are worth discussing. It could happen again.”
With Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jared Harris and Jessica Lucas ready to dodge a deluge of ash, Pompeii arrives on these shores on February 21.