There’s been some words here and there over the past year about some sort of return of the canceled HBO series Rome. Popular character actor and Titus Pullo himself Ray Stevenson has mainly done the speaking, saying that series creator Bruno Heller had mentioned the possibility of maybe getting a new movie off the ground.

Since those first rumblings not much has been heard, not that anyone expected this to unfold as desired in the first place… including myself. But now, more talks have been reported from Heller and Stevenson. Again, nothing solid enough to rejoice over, but they’re still there to hear, which is always good.

Heller basically confirmed his desire to do more, even if it’s just a movie, saying:

Elsewhere on the planet, CHUD spoke to Ray Stevenson, who said that he had met with Bruno Heller about the possibility of a Rome movie and such, but he had no idea what the actual chances were of it happening.

Stevenson also mentioned how if it did indeed happen, he wasn’t sure if it would be theatrical or if it would be an HBO movie. But right now, Heller is working on his new show, The Mentalist, so that may delay things a bit as well.

For me, this is all very bittersweet. Along with Firefly, Rome is another “canceled-way-too-soon” show that resides on my list of the best shows EVER made; I loved it that much. The hard and cold truth to it all, though, is that if Rome comes back in theaters, it just won’t work there, because let’s face it, Rome makes Gladiator look like f’n Disney’s Hercules. The only ray of hope for this is that somehow, someone convinces HBO to do the HBO movie spoken of, or maybe even finds a way to get someone to re-ignite it as a show — but these are damn near impossible scenarios with how huge the budget was.

The thing that really kills me here, is that HBO openly admits to making a mistake by canceling it. But with the huge budget, they had to decide on the fly whether it was worth it financially to keep going or not, and they chose not. Unfortunately, they chose not before the second season even started AND they destroyed all of the massive sets — those amazing, amazing sets. Now, why would you act so quickly? Was there no other options? Was there nowhere to kind of cover up the sets “just in case” the show found this massive cult popularity? These are the things that break my heart. Now, if they wanted to capitalize on the fan base they now know they have, they would have to RE-build this epic world, and that’s just preposterously nonsensical silliness.

Alright, that’s my vent session. I guess all we can really do is hope something comes along somewhere. Worst of the best case scenarios is that a theatrical movie comes along and at least the DVD may be able to accomplish that raw, graphic reality the show had, but again, I vote for HBO to get on this immediately.

Oh, and everyone stop watching The Mentalist for me, thanks.

[Source: THR]