In the debate about the greatest movie ever made, one movie is always there or thereabouts. From a purely technical point of view, it remains arguably still unbeatable to this day. Lawrence Of Arabia.
David Lean created a timeless masterpiece that people will still be watching in 100 years time. So it comes as something of a surprise to hear this is potentially the next project for the German “Master OF Disaster” Roland Emmerich.
Moonfall, The Patriot, and The Day After Tomorrow to Lawrence Of Arabia? Really?
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Emmerich is currently shopping the project around under the title In Arabia as a three-season prestige TV series. Prestige TV from the man behind Those About To Die? Well… OK.
The report quotes Emmerich as saying the title change and shift to TV allows them to have “a little bit more characters” than the film. Yes, because the film was notoriously zippy, lightweight and short, with shallow characters, wasn’t it? FFS.
Surprise, surprise, it is a “long-gestating passion project” of Emmerich’s, and double surprise, they need over $100 million for the first season.
Bohemian Rhapsody writer Anthony McCarten will pen the first season.
The classic original starred Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, and Omar Sharif. It told the story of British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence who was sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks.
Emmerich’s best movie starred Will Smith as a man who punched an alien.