In 79 AD, one of history’s most famous natural disasters took place, resulting the deaths of 16,000 people. That disaster was the cataclysmic eruption of Mt Vesuvius, Italy, burying the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in masses of rock and ash. The most significant recording of the event comes from Pliny the Younger, who survived and observed the eruption, then decided to write about it for posterity and send a SnapChat of it to his friends (citation needed).
Now, almost two millennia later, we are being treated to a new version of the story by Pliny’s successor, Paul W. S. Anderson (director of the RESIDENT EVIL films). POMPEII (in 3D) promises all the fire, rocks, ash, lava, fire from the sky, rocks from the sky, more ash and tidal waves that an emperor himself could ever desire – and all of these things and more fire can be seen in the first TV spot for the film. Did I mention rocks?
The clip looks to be attempting to big up the factual aspect of POMPEII, calling it ‘history’s biggest disaster’ (it’s not by any means…heard of the Black Death and its 75-200 million fatalities?) and opening with this statement:
‘Pompeii Fact: The blast radius of Mt Vesuvius measures roughly the same as 58 baseball stadiums.’
The question is, will the film end up being a legitimate piece of historical cinema, or will it simply be 2012 with Romans and more fire? Check out the TV spot and let us know your prophecies:
POMPEII stars Kit Harrington (GAME OF THRONES’ glum northern bastard Jon Snow), Emily Browning (SUCKER PUNCH), Kiefer Sutherland (24), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (LOST) and Carrie-Anne Moss (THE MATRIX). It erupts into cinemas on 21st February this year.
