“Daniel Craig is all set to let go of his impeccable tux for ancient Roman robes as he steps into the role of bisexual ruler ‘Hadrian’ in his upcoming movie the Memoirs Of Hadrian. The Hollywood hottie will be seen playing the art loving roman ruler, who ruled from 117 to 138 AD and is famous for building the wall dividing Scotland from the Great Britain.” [Oh La La]
Bisexual Craig.
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hells kitchen guy
Hadrian was hardly “bisexual” He was a card-carrying young-man lover.
Shawn
Kiss me Danny!
Moo
I wonder who will play Antinuos.
Paul Raposo
But, HKG, this is Hollywood talkin’. By the time they’re done sanitizing Hadrian’s life, he’ll be a hard fightin’, hard drinkin’, pussy hound going through women like kleenex. Half way through the film, Craig will glance at some Hollywood “it” boy–my guess, Channing Tatum–and all the critics will gush at how brave Craig and Hollywood are.
HL
Oh good, more shirtless Craig.
REBELComx
Yeah really. Bisexual my ass…the man turned his boyfriend into a GOD and mourned for months after his death, and named a city after him. Hadrian and Antonius are probably the most famous historical queer Roman couple.
REBELComx
Antinous….friggin aixelsid.
JP
Antinous was a Beautiful boy.
tallskin
I would say that hadrian and antinous were the most famous gay couple in all history but then I discovered the ancient greek cuties Harmodius and Aristogeiton- the ancient greek athenian lovers who overthrew the tyrants and re-established democracy in athens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmodius_and_Aristogiton
afrolito
I love Daniel Craig, and feel he would have no problem playing Hadrian the way he was (GAY), but in Hollywood bisexual means basically straight with a few stolen glances.
They are going to fuck this up.
Dubwise
wasn’t the wall more about keeping out viking mauraders? seeing as there was no Scotland and or England at the time.
i could be wrong..i have been before.
Craig has played gay before…that movie about Francis Bacon has him nude.
Dubwise
yep…having looked it up…i was wrong…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall
emb
Can we all say “Alexander”? Bah.
CHURCHILL-Y
Animula vagula blandula
hospes comesque corporis
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida nudula
nec ut soles dabis iocos
(Vagrant soul, you tender one,
guest and fellow of the body,
Now you have to descend into places
pallid and rigid and nude,
Nor will you be playful as you used to be.)
Hadrian was a man who could’ve possessed anything he
wanted in the then known world yet after Antinous death
his grief knew no bounds and he never fully recovered from it
taking his sorrow with him to the grave.
Expect Hollywood to dumb it down as much as possible.
REBELComx
Ah the roman and greek world and myths are just rife with epic tales of gay couples. Gods and men alike partook of same sex love, and always with intense and powerfull outcomes. Imagine if 300 had been historically accurate (meet the spartans was more LGBT historically accurate). Where is the movie about the Sacred Band of Thebes? or Harmodius and Aristogeiton who attempted to overthrow a tyranical rule and establish democracy in Athens?
The Greco Roman world lasted 1000 years perfectly accepting of homosexuality…and then those damned Christians leeched their way into power. Same sex love went, in less than a century, from being DEIFIED to being a crime punishible by death.
We need more historical epics about gay heros.
Trenton
I think comments 4, 14, and 15 sum up my feelings on this nicely. But may I also add: ARGH! I can see now the busts of Hadrian and of Antinous as Osiris in the Louvre cracking in twain at the sheer horror of this abomination to be.
PS: Nice one, Chilly. Hadrian’s parting words are some of my favorite from antiquity.
dubwise
CHURCHILL-Y, excellent to see that quote here. well done.
Snoodle
Craig’s played gay/sexually ambigous a few times before…he should have no problem with this, should be good ^_^
Trenton
It’s not Craig that worries me…it’s the very idea of today’s Hollywood appoaching the subject matter at all. Hadrian was an aesthete, a brilliant statesman, and a cunning leader…and gay as all fucking get out.
I don’t mind when Hollywood butchers fiction (people will just assume that the book was a million times better) but when they whitewash and misrepresent history, people don’t just leave with a bad taste: They leave miseducated.
Bring me this John Boorman’s head on a spit.
chandler in lasvegas
Hadrian: known pussy hound, Bush supporter.
(I’m sorry, had to.)
Trenton
T____T
CondeNasty
A freshly shaved Jakey G will do nicely as Antinous.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3274/2583616929_33a11cdb9b.jpg?v=0
http://bp0.blogger.com/_gzuK9jsKG-g/Rw4B33EtSHI/AAAAAAAACyE/GYVNVsjGbMU/s1600/Jake_Gyllenhaal_shirtless–large-msg-11628633169.jpg
Kid A
Why the need to negate bisexuality? Can’t a bisexual be just as passionate as you imagine a gay man would be?
Shaun Tom
IF the producers decide to PG-ify Hadrian’s and Antonius’ relationship, it shouldn’t be too shocking… after all, remember what they did to Patroclus and Achilles in Troy?
Trenton
Kid A:
Hadrian married his grand-niece late in life and never conceived an heir. Instead, he asked his officers to find the most beautiful boy in the land—which was Antinous—whom Hadrian then “adopted” and courted and loved and then turned into a god after Antinous’ death. Those aren’t the actions of a passionate bisexual. They’re the actions of a bona fide homo. One of the greatest ever, and so their recasting him as bi is just pathetic, because they will probably gloss over Antinous or just make him his “son with benefits”, not the true love of his life.
CHURCHILL-Y
Hell, he even named a constellation after him.
Pure frenzy love.
An Other Greek
get ready for another huuuuuge disappointment…
Alexander?
Troy, with Patroclus as Achilles’ cousin(!!!)?
A beautiful mind?
Etc. etc.
——————————————————-
greybat
I think Hollywood DID make a movie about “The Band of Thebes”. Of course, they changed a few things, set it in a different period, added a female love interest, that sort of thing.
It was released with the title, “Operation Petticoat”.
Michael
Yeah, I would agree there’s nothing wrong with being bi but I would agree more that Hadrian was not. More than anything it was the lenghts he went to to adore Antinous: statues, temples, the only non-emperial person on a Roman coin, Antinopolis founded in his name, the sanctioning of the Cult of Antinous, the list goes on and on. This was a man possessed by love. And Antinous only became a (lesser)god after drowning in the Nile, a right bestowed by the Egyptians to all who succumb to the river. Which begs the question: who did it? Since Hadrian’s Helenistic ways were no longer en vogue at the time, and even if they were, to have this “boy” still at the age of 19 or 20 was unheard of in Helenistic society. The power brokers in Rome frowned upon the relationship but since Hadrian was emperor, it was endured. To drown in the Nile would seem a loving death for one so forced to make that choice.
Insideguy
I think that John Boorman is the man to do the right job. Homosexuality was a very different concept in ancient times and fully accepted as part of the coming of age process. Perhaps Hadrian’s love for Antinous went deeper than most but none-the-less he was very public about it. Hadrian lived from 76 AD to 138 AD and Antinous 104 AD to 124 AD, a very wide age difference. There is some speculation that Antinous offered himself as a sacrifice to the gods so that Hadrian would recover from some illness.
Marageret Youcenar’s book, MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN,the basis for the film, is very clear about Hadrian’s sexuality and his relationship. Daniel Craig has stated many times he would like to play a gay role and win an Oscar for it. It is what it is. Boorman directed the 1982 film, EXCALIBUR, a revisionist take on the Arthurian legends that addressed a more historically acurate take on historical events. Boorman will do a fine job here too.