Warner Bros has bought the rights to a film idea about members of the US Army time-travelling to ancient Rome, which was originally posted as a comment on Reddit.

Reddit user The_Quiet_Earth posted the following question: "Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I travelled back in time with a modern US Marine infantry battalion or MEU?"

Author James Erwin (username: Prufrock451) responded with an elaborate comment about the 35th Marine Expeditionary Unit preparing to deploy to southern Afghanistan but appearing instead in a field outside Rome on the wet bank of the Tiber River.


Redditors enjoyed his comment so much that Erwin continued to post updates, until his story got its own subreddit (RomeSweetRome) and a Facebook page. This was spotted by Adam Kolbrenner from Madhouse Entertainment who worked with Erwin to sell it to Warner Brothers under the working title of Rome, Sweet Rome.

Here's a taster of what's in store. This scene takes place the first morning after the MEU landed in Rome:

"At noon, two Sea Knight helicopters roar over Rome at 12,000 feet. Stunned, the pilots swoop in lower and lower. After a half-hour of sightseeing, coming in as low as 1,000 feet, they can no longer deny the evidence of their eyes -- this is not the place or time they had occupied the day before. They leave to report. Behind them, they leave a city in chaos, as terrified Romans flee the awful creatures in the sky.

Sacrificial pyres fill the city with smoke, and priests of every religion shout in the streets."

Erwin is currently working on the script and already has actors in mind for some of the key roles. Watch this space.