In the recent telefilm, AUGUSTUS starring Peter O'Toole, fans of FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE will recognize what appears to be parts of the Roman Forum set. I was amazed that 40 years later it was still standing but it looks unmistakeable. The set for FOTRE would be in Spain, one of the locations for AUGUSTUS.
shareHmm, from what I heard, the set was demolished back in the 60s.
shareI dont know - do you have a source for that information? I could be mistaken but take a look at AUGUSTUS - it certainly LOOKS like the TFOTRE set.
shareWasn't "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum" also shot recycling that set?
shareI think youre right which would mean it survived for at least a couple years beyond TFOTRE .
shareOn another note, I recently read it had been made to look much dirtier for "AFTHOTWTTF".
Also, wouldn't they use computer images in 2003?
AUGUSTUS was made for tv - the set in the 1st 20 minutes does not look like CGI but real - part of the Roman Forum Peter O'Toole wanders through. I wish someone else who knows TFOTRE would take a look and tell me what they think.
shareThe film was originally intended to be made after El Cid (1961) and to reunite Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. The set for the Forum Romanum was actually being built when Heston rejected the script but expressed an interest in '55 Days at Peking' instead. Samuel Bronston immediately ordered that the work on the Forum be stopped and the landscaping and foundation work be adapted for the Peking set. After filming, the Peking set was torn down and replaced by the Forum. If you look carefully, both sets share a very similar topography.
I think the Roman Forum that appears in "Augustus" is actually the one built for the epic 1985 mini-series, "A.D." I think this set is also re-used in the upcoming "The Last Legion". A few productions have used these Tunisian sets, including the BBC production, "Coloseum". I've heard that FOTRE's set was taken down soon after production, though the liner notes for the Silva Screen "More Music from 'Fall of the Roman Empire'" CD contends that the set still stands (or may have when the CD was produced in the early '90's). I've never been sure if the sets were actually used in "Funny". Although that film was filmed at Bronston Studios a few years later, I can't match anything to the earlier film. First of all, the main street in "Funny" is hilly, while those in "FOTRE" are flat and do not represent neihborhoods like the Subura or the Quirinal Hill. I've read conflicting stories and I'm no authority. My guess is that they built new sets, but may have re-used some elements.
The Roman Forum that appears in Augustus was built in the Empire Studios, Hammamat, Tunisia and also appears in the other films of the Imperium series - including Nerone (Nero) and San Pietro (St Peter). I daresay that the set, or parts of it, were re-dressed to serve as Pompeii for that series' Pompei as well. The upcoming BBC series of kids' adventure mysteries, Roman Mysteries, was filmed there, and since The Last Legion was also filmed partly in Tunisia, it's possible that the Empire Studios were also involved.
For information and a short video showing the building of the Imperium set, you can go to http://www.luxvide.it/ and click on "Empire Studios" at the bottom left.
It goes without saying that this is certainly not the same set as that used in The Fall of the Roman Empire which was built in Spain. Any similarities are because both sets were based on the actual Roman forum, though the older set represented the forum's topography and massiveness far more accurately.
Call me Ishmael...
thank you for clearing up this finally - you sound like you have the facts correct...
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