Emperor: Young Caesar is an upcoming epic film based on the novels by Conn Iggulden

Conn Iggulden

Conn Iggulden is a British author who mainly writes historical fiction. He also co-authored The Dangerous Book for Boys.-Background:...

 about the early life of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

. The film will be directed by Burr Steers

Burr Steers

Burr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter and director.-Personal life:Steers was born in Washington, D.C. His father, Newton Ivan Steers, Jr. , was a Republican congressman from Maryland. His mother, Nina Gore Auchincloss , was the daughter of stockbroker and lawyer Hugh D...

 from a screenplay by William Broyles and Stephen Harrigan

Stephen Harrigan

Stephen Harrigan is an American writer, known primarily for his 2000 historical novel The Gates of the Alamo. He was born in Oklahoma City in 1948, grew up in Texas and currently lives in Austin. Harrigan began his career as a journalist, as a staff writer and later senior editor at Texas Monthly...

. On May 20, 2010, producers Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton

Mark Canton

-Life and career:Canton was born in Queens, New York, the son of Shirley and Arthur Canton, who worked in the film industry on marketing and publicity, e.g. for Lawrence of Arabia. As a young adult, Mark Canton met well known movie people like Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean, and Doris Day visited...

 announced that the film would be the first in a planned trilogy chronicling the life of the late Roman dictator

Roman dictator

In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...

.

Synopsis

The film will attempt to adapt the first two novels of the series which span the years from 92 BC

92 BC

Year 92 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pulcher and Perperna...

 to 71 BC

71 BC

Year 71 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Orestes...

:

• The Gates of Rome
  The Gates of Rome
  The Gates Of Rome is the first novel in the Emperor series, written by author Conn Iggulden. The series is historical fiction following the life of Julius Caesar.-Plot introduction:...
  
   - Caesar grows up with his childhood friend Marcus outside Rome, terrorized by the slightly older neighbor Suetonius Prandus. Caesar and Marcus are trained to be warriors under the tutelage of ex-gladiator and soldier, Renius. After Caesar's father and others are killed in a slave revolt, the children go to Rome to join Caesar's uncle (in reality not related by blood) Gaius Marius
  Gaius Marius
  Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
  
   and the populares
  Populares
  Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
  
   faction. Marius, who is consul, is waging a political war against the conservative optimates
  Optimates
  The optimates were the traditionalist majority of the late Roman Republic. They wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies and the Tribunes of the Plebs, and to extend the power of the Senate, which was viewed as more dedicated to the interests of the aristocrats who held the reins of power...
  
   led by Cornelius Sulla, the main antagonist. After a triumph celebrating Marius' victory over African tribes, Sulla is shipped of to Asia Minor
  Asia Minor
  Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
  
   to fight Mithridates VI of Pontus
  Mithridates VI of Pontus
  Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
  
  . Meanwhile, Marius takes possession of Rome and Caesar falls in love with Cornelia Cinna, daughter of a populare. Marcus goes to Macedon
  Macedon
  Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
  
   to join a legion as he is, by his unnoble birth, not in position to become a senator. Upon Sulla's return, civil war rages (historically, though simplified) between him and Marius. By having left soldiers in Rome, Sulla succeeds in capturing the city and kills Marius when he refuses to surrender. By his dying breath, Marius asks his loyal men to defeat Sulla. After days of tough street-fighting in which Caesar is captured, Sulla emerges victor and is proclaimed dictator. He asks Caesar to join him, threatening him with torture and death if he refuses. Upon seeing the young man irresistibly wanting to turn his back on his dead uncle, Sulla lets him go. Forced to flee Rome, Caesar does so and joins the navy to go to Egypt. Meanwhile, Marcus has been victorious in campaigns against barbarians and is opted to lengthen his contract. He does so, and when asked to sign his name, reveals the surname Brutus (Marcus Brutus). The book closes by Brutus being praised for his great valor.

• The Death of Kings
  The Death of Kings
  The Death of Kings is a novel by British author Conn Iggulden, and is the second book in the Emperor series, which follows the life of Julius Caesar.The book was released in the UK in January 2004, published by HarperCollins.-Plot summary:...
  
   - Opening in the Aegean Sea, Caesar leads a group of men to attack a rebellious fortress in Mytilene
  Mytilene
  Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
  
   (historical) and he is saluted for his courage. Meanwhile, Brutus is forced to flee Greece upon having late meetings with a young woman. Accompanied by cruel but magnificent gladiator Renius, he sets off to Rome. Meanwhile, Cornelia is terrified as Sulla haunts her. Upon raping her on the night where her and Caesar's daughter Julia is born, Caesar and Brutus' friend Tubruk (caretaker of Caesar's estate when they were young) kills Sulla and manages to escape uncaught though others are tortured and killed. Caesar is caught by pirates and forced to ransom 20 talents. He suggests 50 instead, and upon being released on the African coast he builds up a minor army, manages to find the pirate in Greece and takes revenge. Upon landing in Greece, he finds out Sulla is dead and decides to go home. Meanwhile, defeated but surviving, Mithridates rebels yet again to fight Rome and Caesar falls into battle with him, managing to defeat and kill the king (the title of the book, suggesting Sulla and Mithridates. This event is fictitious as Mithridates was historically defeated by Pompey and committed suicide more than ten years later.) Upon returning to Rome, Caesar rises as a lawyer and manages to claim Marius' old house and send the optimate housed in it (general Antonidus
  General Antonidus
  General Antonidus is a fictive character in Conn Iggulden's best-sellings Emperor book series. In the series, he is a optimate-party general supporting Sulla in the Servilian war....
  
  ) into slavery, receiving enemies among the optimates. Upon the rebellion of Spartacus, Caesar follows the populares Pompey and Crassus who rallies troops and hunts the slave army to Gaul. Cato, who secretly had Pompey's daughter killed as revenge for Sulla now lets murderers kill Cornelia and Caesar returns in sorrow to Rome. Upon tracking down the assassin, Pompey kills him and Cato. Crassus builds a wall to trap the slaves on the coast. Caesar goes out to fight the last battle, depressed but encouraged by old friend Cabera, a healer and friend of Renius. Spartacus fights the last battle against Pompey and seeing his slaves are defeated he puts on his helmet, grasp
  GRASP
  Grasp may refer to:* GRASP , a multimedia authoring software* GRASP , a SAT instance solver* GRASP , General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns...
  
  s his sword and charges into the battle, predicting Rome will fall one day. The book closes with Crassus and Pompey riding along the Via Appia towards Rome, passing six thousand crucified slaves. The two have been assuming power and, having exiled Caesar to Spain, enter the city, with Pompey believing Caesar will be no more than he already is.