HBO's Rome To Be Resurrected As A Film?

Fans of HBO's historical epic series Rome may soon have a reason to give their DVDs a rest. It seems that creator Bruno Heller is interested in revisiting the series as a theatrical film. Heller, who is currently helming The Mentalist on CBS, told THR earlier today that he'd love to wrap up the storyline that was cut short due to the show's cancellation.

Despite getting decent ratings and several awards, the show was cancelled in the middle of its second season of production. With some estimates putting the budget of the show's first season at around $100 million, it's not surprising that HBO couldn't stomach a third season (honestly, I'm grateful we even got a second). Heller ended up squeezing several seasons worth of plot into the show's second season. One storyline, involving a certain Jewish messiah, didn't make it into the series at all and could easily be adapted to film.

TV-to-film adaptations are becoming all the more common these days, but thus far I believe Sex and the City has been the only truly successful one. Serenity, while popular among fans, was a failure financially—and let's not even get into what happened with the latest X-Files film. Unlike Rome, however, Sex and the City was a pop-culture phenomenon that had legions of fans waiting to make the film a success. Rome was popular among critics, but I don't believe a "Rome" branded film would really draw the same sort of crowds based on name alone.

I want to believe in this film, but given that it would need a budget massively beyond that of Sex and the City, I think Heller is ultimately setting himself up for failure. Still, I'd kill to see Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo getting into all sorts of mischief again. Hopefully, I'm not the only one.

Discuss: Do you think Rome could make the transition to the big screen? How do you feel about tv-to-film adaptations in general?

Source: THR via Cinematical