Reddit—the web home for the finest animal videos, incest survivor q-and-a's, and inspirational weight loss stories—just added another notch to its considerable belt: dream money maker. Two-time Jeopardy! champion and writer James Erwin posted his pitch for a time-travelling movie on the internet's preeminent link warehouse, and voila: Variety reports that Warner Bros. has preemptively purchased the high-concept pitch Rome, Sweet Rome. At least you can say you loved it before it was popular.
The pitch came out of a Reddit thread (view the original thread here) where another user asked an initial “what if?” inspired by simultaneous viewings of HBO’s Rome and Generation Kill: "What if a unit of current U.S. Marines are suddenly transported back to ancient Rome and forced to do battle with the Roman legions?" Erwin, aka Prufrock451, wrote an incredibly thorough answer, which spun off into its own section.
Madhouse Entertainment's Adam Kolbrenner spotted Erwin's "Rome, Sweet Rome" posts once they reached the gilded front page of Reddit, contacted Erwin, and begin working with him to develop the concept. So what Reddit post might be turned into movie gold next? The heartwarming story of a subway conductor? The life and death of a lonely tree? Or perhaps a morality tale about an up-and-coming politician undone by the very technology which he used to launch his career?
