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Sword and Sandal Update: Paramount Starts Ratner's 'Hercules,' Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kiefer Sutherland to Play Villain in Paul W.S. Anderson's 3-D 'Pompeii'

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The success of "Gladiator," "300" and HBO's "Rome" and "Game of Thrones" have made sword and sandal pictures acceptable again. (Maybe producers should remember "The Immortals," "Alexander," "Prince of Persia," "Troy" and "Clash of the Titans.") Noam Murro's "300: Rise of an Empire," reprising Rodrigo Santoro as Frank Miller's Xerxes, is due August 2. Sony is prepping a major "Cleopatra" starring Angelina Jolie; Ang Lee is checking out Eric Roth's script. And now in May Brett Ratner will start shooting "Hercules" (July 2014) starring Dwayne Johnson for MGM and Paramount. And Kiefer Sutherland is in final talks to star as the villain in "Pompeii," a 3-D Roman disaster movie with Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm. So Sutherland will play... Mount Vesuvius?