arisu’s picks from the vaults of Classical History:
Nicias and The Sicilian Expedition.
Boudicca’s Rebellion
Cicero
Pericles and Aspasia
most of all…
The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. (Perhaps an adaptation of Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire. There is an epic movie just waiting there.)
Has there been a movie about Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the Americas? I can’t think of one off-hand.
There were a few older ones, and then there were two (not very good movies, in my opinion) that came out in 1992, for the 500 year aniversery…“The Discovery”, which was kind of pro-Columbus (and has Tom Selleck as King Ferdinand), and “1492: Conquest of Paradise”, which was anti (and which casts Gerard Depardieu as Columbus, which would be a good choice, because I like him as an actor, but his English isn’t that great, and it’s a major speaking role).
Check out the 1962 movie The 300 Spartans with Richard Egan as Leonidas and Ralph Richardson as Themistocles. A review is here, and apparently the DVD is due out in June 2003.
Edward VIII.
How about a movie of both ? I don’t remember the guy’s name, but there was a reporter that traveled on both the Titanic and the Lusitania on the voyage where they sank. Obviously he survived both of them, only to die in the late 50s by falling into a stream of about six inches of water and drowning. Talk about irony !
John Kellog and his personal crusade.
The rise and fall of the commune of Paris.
A film about the Mongols and their conquests would be quite fascinating.
Has there been a film about the trial of Socrates?
Another interesting possibility is story of Japense soliders fighting for the US in WW2 (IIRC one of the most decorated units in the war) while their families were being interned at home.
The Mongol one has already been done. Starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan in the most stunning miscast in movie history.
“Starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan in the most stunning miscast in movie history.”
Wow. Hollywood makes the strangest movies sometimes.
BTW that should be “Japanese-American soldiers fighting for the US”. I am surprised no one has picked up the story given the increased interest in WW2 in recent years.
Well, it’s kinda been done:
http://us.imdb.com/Details?0111001
My own pick would be the the story of the Hood and the Bismarck. The only movie ever made was a “character drama” that featured some stock warship footage and close-ups of XOs (I presume) respectively shouting “Shoot!” and “Feuer!”.
James Cameron actually did a pretty good job with this story a few months ago on a documentary about the Bismarck.
The name of that movie, btw, was “Sink the Bismarck!” from the late 1950s.
Of course, it will have to be a cereal. 
Yeah, but I, Caludius only covered, what, four of the twelve Caesars? “the Year of the Four Emperors” would make a great miniseries, covering the fall of Nero to the rise of the Flavians.
Gore Vidal’s Julian was the first thing I thought of, followed by Marguerite Yourcenour’s Memoirs of Hadrian and Robert Graves’ Count Belisarius (yep, I’m a Rome buff).
The Second Punic War would be good. But it was a 16+ year war spanning two continents with several major players, so it would be hard to do–especially with Hollywood’s chronic inability to do any actual historical research.
The European discovery of porcelain would also be quite good on film.
Matahari? Strong woman screwed and screwed over by powerful man.
Oh, yeah, a spell-binder.
“Got it yet?”
“No.”
“Got it yet?”
“No.”
“Got it yet?”
“No.”
“Got it yet?”
“Yes. Now let’s have some tea.”
Well, you won’t have to wait much longer. A new version is on the way.
Interestingly enough, Hollywood did this story over 50 years ago (but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done again now).
Don’t ask me why but Rawicz’s story was the first one that came into my mind when I saw this thread. Ever since I first read The Long Walk, I thought it, with the right director, would make a great movie. I’m really kind of surprised no one has yet taken a serious stab at adapting the book for the screen. Although, since David Lean and Stanley Kubrick are dead, I can’t think of anybody off the top of my head who could successfully make a “thinking person’s” epic out of the story.