Deadwood meets 300 in new Raimi/Lawless venture ‘Spartacus: Blood and Sand’…
Awesome…
Ohhh more Raimi and Lawless too! New Zealand Herald:
Just as the local production on the first season of Legend of the Seeker winds down, another of producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi’s latest New Zealand-based productions is about to start shooting. And this one will involve Lucy Lawless – Tapert’s missus – in a recurring role…
…Tapert says the show is for US cable network Starz Entertainment and will be shot largely using greenscreen in an Auckland studio, using many local actors – at least ones willing to get their gear off. “It’s a reinvention of that story and myth. So the first 13 episodes are like the rise of the gladiator rock star. It’s more in the vein of Deadwood meets 300“…
Lawless… plays Lucretia, who with her husband Batiatus own a gladiator camp called the Ludus. They also own the soldier-turned-slave Spartacus. According to the network, “the couple has fallen on hard times financially and has bought Spartacus hoping his fighting prowess will help them regain their status in the brutal world of gladiatorial contests.”
British actor Andy Whitfield has been cast as Spartacus after what the network describes as “an exhaustive worldwide search.”…
The series begins production April 1 in New Zealand and is slated to premiere on Starz in January 2010. “Xena” producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, along with Joshua Donen, are exec producing the series.
Other cast members include:
- Erin Cummings (“Dollhouse”) as Thracian priestess Sura, Spartacus’ wife;
- Peter Mensah (“300,” “Avatar”) as Doctore, Batiatus’ most loyal and trusted slave;
- Manu Bennett (“30 Days of Night,” “The Condemned”) as Crixus, the top gladiator at Batiatus’ Ludus;
- Antonio Te Maioha (“Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Legend of the Seeker”) as Barca, a big, hulking brute of a man who is Batiatus’ bodyguard and hit man;
- Craig Parker (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Legend of the Seeker”) as Glaber, a Roman Legate, who blames Spartacus for his failed military campaign;
- Nick E. Tarabay (“Crash,” “The Sopranos”) as Ashur, a former gladiator who is now the Ludus’ resident bookie.
Moderate in the Middle 