Kit Harington (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, "Game of Thrones") has been cast in Paul W.S. Anderson's period disaster movie Pompeii, to be based on the world's most famous volcanic eruption.

The film centers on Milo (Harington), the slave of a shipping tycoon who dreams of the day he can buy his freedom and marry his master's daughter. What Milo doesn't know is that she's already been promised to a corrupt Roman senator, while he's been sold to another owner in Naples. Just when things can't get any worse, Mt. Vesuvius erupts, prompting Milo to head back to Pompeii to rescue his love and his best friend, a gladiator who's trapped in the city's coliseum.

Financed and produced by Constantin Film, the movie will be distributed by Lionsgate/Summit in North America.

Anderson and Jeremy Bolt are producing through their Impact Pictures along with Robert Kulzer and Martin Moszkowicz of Constantin Film. Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler wrote the script, which was revised by Julian Fellowes.

(Photo Credit: B.Dowling/WENN.com)