How HBO Should Remake “I, Claudius”
A quick glance of Derek Jacobi (pictured with John Hurt and George Baker) on the television reminded me that HBO has commissioned a new adaptation of the 1970s classic series “I, Claudius.” The Telegraph then comments: ‘A remake doesn’t feel like sacrilege, and HBO are a quality broadcaster, yet it’s a considerable undertaking and other attempts to take on [Robert] Graves’s work have proved abortive. Orson Welles abandoned a proposed film at a very early stage, while in 1937 Alexander Korda planned a version of the first book with Charles Laughton in the title role. Production was halted when Korda’s then wife Merle Oberon (cast as Claudius’s wife) was injured in a car accident. So what do HBO need to do to get it right?’ The Telegraph article offers a few suggestions.
