Fox plans Germanic 'Gladiator' rip-off 'Arminius'

But is America ready to root for a German hero?

By Corwin Neuse Dec 7, 2012 9:26PM

According to Deadline, Fox has picked up the rights to swords-and-sandals epic "Arminius" by screenwriter Frank Moll. The film would ostensibly center around the historical German hero, who was trained as a Roman legionary but triumphantly/tragically switched sides after Emperor Augustus Caesar's invasion of Germania.

Those who remember 2000's Oscar-winning "Gladiator" may remember its opening battle scene taking place in Germania; this project promises to show the genesis of that conflict, with equal verve and flair. "Troy's" Wolfgang Peterson is producing. No word as yet as to a director or star.

The real question is, will America be ready for a German hero? Lest we forget, Arnold Schwarzenegger is Austrian; Christopher Waltz usually plays villains; and even mentioning the words "Germany" and "nationalism" in the same sentence is enough to give even the most historically-ignorant, average American teenager the cold wobbles. Then again, the Germanic tribes from the Roman era have as much to do with modern Germany as sauerkraut does with wiener-schnitzel: one's made out of fermented cabbage, the other out of deep-fried deer meat... Or maybe that was a bad analogy.

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