Yesterday afternoon, Steven S. DeKnight, the show runner of Starz' drama series Spartacus: Vengeance spoke to the press about the upcoming season, which premiers later this month. Among the topics of conversation was the possibility that Spartacus might someday make its way to the big screen. From what DeKnight says, the idea has been toyed with by the series’ executive producers.
Just yesterday, we passed along some quotes from one of the writers of Showtime's Dexter regarding the possibility that the serial killer drama might someday become a movie. It sounds more like a vague possibility in the case of Dexter and the same can be said about Spartacus, based on DeKnight's comments in response to a direct question about the chances of a film based on the Starz drama series.
"[Spartacus executive producers] Rob Tapert, Josh Donen, Sam Raimi, and I have always whispered in the hallways about maybe one day to do some kind of spinoff movie. Really I think it depends on where we take the show on television and everybody's schedules. But, we'd certainly be interested in one day doing something like that."
At this point, there's probably a greater chance of Dexter seeing the big screen before Spartacus does, if either story were to make the transition from TV show to film. For one thing, Dexter is much further along than Spartacus, which is only just starting its third (or second, if you exclude last year's Gods of the Arena six-episode prequel). The series had a major and unfortunate setback, due to the illness of the star Andy Whitfield, who passed away from non-Hodgkin lymphoma last fall. He was previously replaced on the series by Liam McIntyre and the show is set to resume on the pay-cable channel on January 27th.
While it wouldn't be the first time Spartacus' story was adapted to film, the series may be a bit too young to think beyond what’s ahead for the show at this point. Still, it's interesting to know that it's something the writers have considered and would be interested in pursuing at some point down the line.
