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A historian breaks down the ancient history film The Last Legion. The Last Legion is a 2007 war epic film about young Romulus Augustulus attempting to flee the city and embark on a voyage to Britain while the Roman Empire falls apart. Romulus Augustulus is played by a young Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who is surrounded by a leading cast that includes Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kevin McKidd, Peter Mullan, and Josh Hannah. The film was directed by Doug Lefler with a screenplay written by Jez and Tom Butterworth.

In an interview with History Hit, historian Tristan Hughes picks apart The Last Legion. Hughes began by explaining that The Last Legion is a film that "was never really seen in the high echelons of ancient history films." The historian went on to note that The Last Legion is pretty dire and contains a lot of inaccuracies. One such inaccuracy was...

“There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it, anything more than a whisper and it would vanish.” These were the words spoken by Richard Harris at his most regal in Gladiator, adding some blockbuster poeticism to the democratic ideals of the Roman republic—a dream lost long before Gladiator begins. But he could just as easily be speaking about the beauty and grandeur of the historical epics which inspired Gladiator .

Decades before Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott reawakened that whisper to a mighty roar, historical war epics, from swords and sandals beefcake cinema to Napoleonic and Revolutionary melodramas, were the order of the day in Hollywood. Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus and Charlton Heston’s Ben-Hur were the superheroes of the early ‘60s, before the genre’s popularity receded to camp TV miniseries ignominy. Then came Gladiator (and to a lesser extent Braveheart five years earlier), and...

The Black Cauldron

Written by David Jonas, Vance Gerry, Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Al Wilson, Roy Morita, Peter Young, Art Stevens, Joe Hale, Rosemary Anne Sisson, Roy Edward Disney, Tony Marino, Steve Hulett, Melvin Shaw, Burny Mattinson, John Musker, Ron Clements, and Doug Lefler

Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich

USA, 1985

If there is one movie, Disney would like to delete from its animation library, it’s The Black Cauldron. What began as another feather in their animation cap became a perfect storm of misfortune that lead to a box office bomb that put Disney on the edge of disaster. They waited 13 years before releasing the film on VHS, and only because enough fans requested the film be made available. Although The Black Cauldron isn’t considered a Disney classic, it has established itself as a cult classic.

Those looking beyond mainstream animation will find a hidden gem within...

Bollywood is so far out of my comfort zone that I only know of the films being produced there when someone brings them to my attention. Case in point: The Robot (Endhiran).

Directed by S. Shankar this bit of cheeky entertainment stars Rajnikanth and the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai who some may remember as Mira in Doug Lefler’s The Last Legion. The story’s pretty simple: a doctor, played by Rajnikanth, creates a robot who, after some modification, begins to experience human emotions. He falls in love with Sana (Rai) while the bad guys try to acquire the robot for their own purposes. That’s all fine and good but this is Bollywood so don’t forget to add in music (by the Oscar winning A. R. Rahman) and dance numbers (and I expect a lengthy running time).

Gloriously cheesy, the trailer is full of questionable CG, winks to The...

The 1976 Cal Arts Character Animation Class in Room A-113: Back: Joe Lanzisero, Darrell Van Citters, Brett Thompson, John Lasseter (pencil in mouth) Leslie Margolin, Mike Cedeno, Paul Nowak, Nancy Beiman; Middle: Jerry Rees, Bruce Morris, Elmer Plummer, Brad Bird, Doug Lefler; Front: Harry Sabin, John Musker The memo posted after the jump has been recently floating around the animation message boards. Cal-Arts is the only college to go to if you ever hope to direct anything longer than an animated television show in the United States.  While I've known that the feature animation business was dominated by Cal-Arts alumni, I didn't know it was This extensive. Check it out now, after the jump. via cartoonbrew...

The Judd Apatow comedy combine has struck again. Sony Pictures' rude, R-rated teen sex comedy "Superbad" burst out of the starting gate Friday, grossing an estimated $12.2 million in 2,948 theaters. Following in the wake of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up", which Apatow directed, the new film that he served on as producer looks as if it will exceed initial expectations for the weekend, grossing in the high $20 million range, possibly even hitting the $30 million mark.

Directed by Greg Mottola, "Superbad" stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as a couple of teens looking for their first score.

The weekend's other two wide arrivals, however, hardly created a ripple at the boxoffice.

Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Invasion", the latest remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and officially directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, debuted in fourth place with a weak, estimated $2 million.

The Weinstein Co.'s "The Last Legion", a twilight-of-the-Roman-Empire action pic directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis Prods., finished outside of the top 10 with a meager estimated tally of $883,000.