It’s not quite a Spartacus reboot, but The Champion will certainly be taking on aspects of the original story about the Roman gladiator.
The 1960 film Spartacus is known the world over for its titular hero and for the lines, “I’m Spartacus! No, I’m Spartacus,” which have made their own mark on popular culture.
As such, plenty of remakes have been produced, including a television series on Starz (pictured above) that has received mixed reviews but certainly has its own dedicated group of fans.
Now, however, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a new Spartacus story is on the horizon, but this time it comes with a sci-fi twist, as it’s set in the future.
Their synopsis of the film reads, “Champion tells of a man falsely imprisoned for an act of terrorism who must battle through the prison’s gladiator program to regain his freedom.”
The script was written by actor Hal Ozsan, who has taken pen to paper and landed his first script sale with this project. He’s previously been seen on screen in Dawson’s Creek, Helter Skelter, and Lucifer, among many others.
The film will be helmed by Olivier Megaton, who may be best known for picking up the Taken franchise and directing both Taken 2 and Taken 3, as well as Transporter 3 and Colombiana.
The Champion is being pitched as an action/sci-fi movie, so it only makes sense that someone like Megaton would be a perfect fit for such a project.
The story of Spartacus is a tried-and-true tale of a man who has been wronged and must fight his way to freedom. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the original story line stays in tact despite the futuristic twist, and what sort of world it’ll be set in.
The film will begin shooting in early 2017.
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