British director John Boorman is reviving his long-mooted project about the life of Roman Emperor Hadrian, most famous in Britain for building the eponymous wall that separated England and Scotland, reports Variety.
U.K.-based Handmade Films has boarded the $50 million-$60 million project and will be fully financing Hadrian. Rome-based Olympus Films will co-produce.
Boorman, as well as Handmade chairman Patrick Meehan and Olympus topper Enzo Peri, who acquired the rights to Marguerite Yourcenar’s bestselling novel “Memoirs of Hadrian,” are casting the lead role.
Boorman is co-writing the script along with frequent collaborator Rospo Pallenberg, who previously worked with the helmer on King Arthur epic Excalibur and The Emerald Forest.
Principal photography is set to start next spring in Morocco, Rome and Spain.
