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GORDIANUS GOES TO HOLLYWOOD? Steven’s Hollywood agent has long been plugging away to bring one of his books to the screen. The late Donald Westlake (winner of four Edgar Awards and an Oscar nominee for THE GRIFTERS) wrote a dynamite screenplay for ARMS OF NEMESIS (the second novel in the ROMA SUB ROSA), but various hitches of the typical Hollywood variety grounded that project. Meanwhile, an independent European producer has written a screenplay for ROMAN BLOOD which is currently being read on both sides of the Atlantic. So maybe, one of these days, there will be a Gordianus movie... Meanwhile, the phenomenal success of GLADIATOR spawned a new generation of Ancient World epics. Brad Pitt as Achilles, hero of TROY, Oliver Stone’s ALEXANDER with Colin Farrell as the conqueror, and KING ARTHUR, about the origins of Camelot in 5th-century Britain, followed. On the smaller screen, NBC gave us a HERCULES hunkfest, ABC delivered a fanciful EMPIRE set in the aftermath of Caesar’s death, and HBO created a sensation with ROME. Meanwhile, European television delivered lavishly-produced mini-series like AUGUSTUS, starring Peter O’Toole, and NERO, starring Hans Matheson. The the huge success of 300 spawned a whole new crop of Greek and Roman movie. Click here to see Steven’s list of upcoming productions and his other pages on Ancient World movies, old and new. Despite the variable fortunes of Hollywood’s ventures into ancient history, the fascination of Rome continues. If a movie or TV series ever does materialize...who should play Gordianus?

Have you seen this book? Copies of the 1991 first-edition hardback of Roman Blood are as scarce as hen’s teeth at a Roman augury! St. Martin’s Press published 2000 copies in a first printing and 1500 copies in a second printing. Many sold to libraries, making them uncollectable. One rare-book dealer called Roman Blood “perhaps the least common of the modern mystery firsts.” A seller on eBay called the first edition of Roman Blood “the holy grail of the modern mystery first collectors.” Copies in good condition sell for $800 and up.