DiCaprio to play Emperor Claudius?
In a $2 million deal, producer Scott Rudin has acquired screen rights to the Robert Graves historical novel “I, Claudius.” It is expected that “The Departed” tandem of Leonardo DiCaprio and Oscar-winning scribe William Monahan will become attached to the project.
Several bidders fought for Graves’s famed book about the Roman Empire as told through the eyes of Claudius, starting with the rise of Augustus Caesar to emperor in 24 B.C., and ending with the crowning of Nero in 54 A.D. The book featured all the attendant backstabbing, violence, and debauchery that was part and parcel of the Roman ruling class.
The BBC turned Graves’ novel into an iconic TV miniseries in 1976, with Derek Jacobi as Claudius.
