ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

'ZOMBIES vs. GLADIATORS'

COMING TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU

GLADIATORS are all that can save Imperial Rome from a horde of hungry zombies in a new action-packed movie screenplay scenario.

Hellraiser creator and prolific horror and fantasy writer Clive Barker has been signed to write the action horror project, Zombies vs. Gladiators, for Amazon Studios. 

Set in ancient Rome, the Zombies vs. Gladiators story opens as a shaman who is about to die in the Colosseum casts a spell that unleashes the world's first zombies. It's up to an intrepid gladiator to stop the spread of the zombie horde and save Rome. 

Zombies vs. Gladiators becomes one of 16 film projects in development at Amazon since the division launched in November 2010 with a strategy that uses audience feedback and submissions to develop movie ideas. That led to the submission of 9,000 movie film scripts and 1,000 TV series pilot scripts.  

From the moment it debuted at Amazon Studios, Zombies vs. Gladiators has been one of the most creatively engaging scripts, spurring tremendous interest within the community and movie fans alike, indicating its mainstream and commercial viability for the studio. As a result of this overwhelming and popular support, Amazon is moving forward to develop the project with Clive Barker at the helm. 

"Zombies vs. Gladiators is now in the hands of someone who has written genre-defining material throughout his career," said Roy Price, director, Amazon Studios. "We are excited to see how Clive will add his unique narrative to capture the essence of this story and propel the project into something unique and original that could one day be enjoyed by all audiences."

Said Barker, "I'm excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads. One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element - the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before." 

At any rate, an infestation of flesh-eating zombies in ancient Rome certainly gives newfound vibrancy to Marc Antony's famous line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."