We all know that the movies aren’t going to be historically correct, one can see that with (although I think he looks lovely from the pictures) Brad Pitt playing Achilles, Brad Pitt is a man nearly 40 years Achilles was a youth. Everything about the fore coming films is going to be Hollywood's interpretation of ancient history.

To be honest with everyone here I don't think that is such a bad thing. If it gets people who have never been interested in history to watch the movies then it may encourage people whom are not usually interested in Ancient History to explore these characters more. To find out what the real Hannibal or Alexander was really like. Many people became interested in Astronomy because of the Star wars and the Star Trek movies. We have had more people reading Tolkien books because of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

How many times have we seen movies about King Arthur were the actors wear full knighted armour that wasn’t worn till after the Norman conquest of England? But because of the many movies/cartoons and TV adaptations about King Arthur, Arthur has remained in the public’s imagination and more people know of King Arthur even though he may not have been an actual historical figure than those that we know to have been factual Kings/Emperors.

Let’s forget about historical context and pray that the movies will be acted and scripted well with the same excitement giving to others. Half of the world has never heard of Alexander or Hannibal, these movies could be the very first time many have actually heard of their names. If Troy (don’t forget we aren’t too sure as yet if there was a Troy) was played out the way Homer writes then those coming to see the movie could be bored senseless.

I very much hope the movies will be very successful and give encouragement to other movie makers to explore more of our ancient world to make others, who knows we could have a movie made of one of the ancient Pharaohs or a Chinese emperor in a few years time.