#bc i think it fits the vibe and also wld make the aeneid sell

[figbian]

hey i know you are still in the process of writing it but the concept of an Aeneid TV series has lived rent free in my head for the last three years and i'm obsessed with your pilot. do you have general ideas for what you'd want in other episodes or ??????

omg hello anon...yes absolutely. it's an ep per book rn, and very...weird! i wanted it to be very aware of its genre (the way the aeneid is hyper-aware of its genre & its place within a literary tradition), which makes it hard to write bc. i dont know enough abt film. but thats ok i know cool film people who will help.

also oops this is long . i have so many thoughts,

in short: aeneas is aware of the camera until he isn't (book 12), fama is our narrator (instead of virgil) & she's invisible to p much everyone (until she isn't)

im very very happy to go into more detail abt the pilot bc im deep into it rn (and almost done w my first draft! hooray!) but basically in the first ep fama shifts between being in a fit from 1927 & a toga.

(this is because women who wore togas were prostitutes in rome, n tho i havent got a really good reason to make fama a prostitute i am thinking a lot abt roman plays, the prostitute character, n the subversion of gender roles by having fama be the narrator instead of virgil, whose voice is conspicuously absent from the script).

1927 is when mussolini erects the first part of the monument in the piazza virgiliana, which has 3 statues overall. i think maybe having a quiet background narrative of understanding the aeneid's reception might add to why the aeneid should be adapted in the first place. (on that note, i'd like for aeneas to be middle eastern, specifically turkish, and i picture him with an italian accent. if there are any white brit aeneases im gonna cry.)

in later episodes, fama will probably shift to other places: russia, spain/colonial mexico, etc, which ill decide based on book i think. i also want to embrace some of the cliches (like the tree gushing blood in book 3, or the classic sitcom situation between dido & aeneas in book 4), and make tthem very obvious references to the appearances of said cliches in film & tv.

some things i know i'd like to have for sure: dido only becomes aware of the camera as she dies in book 4; some hbo moments (bc gratuitous violence is the point); playing w aeneas as the dutiful traitor & playing w the inconsistencies in the aeneid in general; an exhausted fama, who has seen this go down so many times; turnus only becoming aware of the camera upon his death (AND repeating aeneas' first words to the camera).

some things im playing w: gods feeling... out of time?? perhaps even having an old hollywood feel/transatlantic accent?? emphasizing time period fuckery (a la asoue except its late republic/early imperial rome & the bronze age)??

i also really want aeneas to feel like a character. a lot of the time ppl think he's boring, and he is, but mostly he just doesn't want to be there.

some excerpts below so u catch my vibe; hopefully this kind of answers ur question. happy 2 write more tho LMAO i love the aeneid and my brain is FULL rn.

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