Go ahead, add another book to that summer reading list as Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) is set to direct The Eagle of the Ninth, a Roman epic adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel of the same name.
Jeremy Brock who penned Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland adapted the screenplay, which is decribed as a Roman adventure set in the dangerous world of second-century Britain. In 135 A.D., fifteen years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca, Marcus sets out across Hadrian’s Wall into the uncharted High Lands of Caledonia – to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father’s memory, and retrieve the lost legion’s golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.
Focus Features will distribute the film and it will be Macdonald’s next following the work he is putting in on State of Play due out April 17, 2009. Pre-production on Eagle of the Ninth will begin at the end of 2008.
No cast has been announced.
