Spartacus: Blood and Sand | |
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Spartacus: Blood and Sand's intertitle |
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Genre | Historical Drama/Sword-and-sandal[1] |
Created by | Steven S. DeKnight |
Written by | Aaron Helbing Todd Helbing Miranda Kwok Steven S. DeKnight Brent Fletcher Tracy Bellomo Andrew Chambliss Daniel Knauf |
Directed by | Michael Hurst Rick Jacobson Jesse Warn |
Starring |
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Composer(s) | Joseph LoDuca |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 13 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Producer(s) | Chloe Smith Charles Knight Aaron Lam |
Editor(s) | Gary Hunt Jonathan Woodford-Robinson |
Location(s) | New Zealand |
Cinematography | Aaron Morton |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | Starz |
Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
Original run | January 22, 2010 | – present
External links | |
Official website |
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a Starz television series that premiered on January 22, 2010. The series focuses on the historical figure of Spartacus (played by Andy Whitfield), a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading to the records of history.[2] The show has been rated TV-MA for graphic violence, strong sexual content, and coarse language.
The show was initially renewed for a second season, but production was delayed because Whitfield was diagnosed with early-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Due to the delay, Starz announced on May 11, 2010, that it is developing a six-episode prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Filming of season 2 has begun following the announcement that Whitfield is cancer free.[3]
Contents |
The story begins with an unnamed Thracian’s involvement in a Thracian unit of Roman auxiliary in a campaign against the Getae (Dacian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania) under the command of the legatus, Claudius Glaber. In 72-71 BC, Roman general Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, proconsul of the Roman province of Macedonia, marched against the Getae, who were allies of Rome's enemy, Mithridates VI of Pontus. The Getae frequently raid the Thracians' lands, so the Thracians are persuaded by Glaber to enlist in the Romans' service as auxiliaries. Glaber is persuaded by his wife Ilithyia to seek greater glory, decides to break off attacking the Getae and directly confront the forces of Mithridates in Asia Minor. The Thracian, feeling betrayed, leads a mutiny against Glaber, and returns to find his village destroyed. The Thracian and his wife Sura, are captured by Glaber the next day; the Thracian is condemned to die in the gladiator arena for his crime, while Sura is taken away, condemned to slavery. The Thracian is shipped to Capua in Italy, a center of gladiator training. In the arena he kills the four gladiators appointed to kill him, and becomes popular with the crowd. Senator Albinius commutes the punishment from death to slavery. The prisoner's true name is unknown, Lentulus Batiatus, the owner of a ludus in Capua, suggests to name him "Spartacus", because he fought like the ferocious Thracian king of that name.
Seeing the Thracian's skill and popularity with the crowd, Batiatus purchases him for training. Spartacus joins Batiatus’ ludus under the tutelage of Doctore, a former gladiator and fellow slave. He is befriended by Varro, a Roman who sold himself into slavery in order to pay his debts and support his family. He is harassed by more senior gladiators, notably Crixus, an undefeated Gaul, and Barca, a Carthaginian. Spartacus soon learns that Sura was sold to a Syrian slave trader. Batiatus, who has been unable to control Spartacus during his first days of training, and persuades Spartacus to fight for his and Sura's freedom.
Spartacus becomes very successful and is named the "Champion of Capua". Batiatus arranges the purchase of Sura, but she is delivered mortally wounded, supposedly having been waylaid by bandits en route. Her murder was secretly ordered by Batiatus to keep Spartacus loyal and focused. Spartacus casts off his history as a Thracian, and forgets his dream of freedom, becoming content with life as champion. The turning point comes when Spartacus is set to fight his only friend in the ludus, Varro, in an exhibition match celebrating the coming to manhood of the Capuan magistrate's son, Numerius. Ilithyia, who has hated Spartacus since he embarrassed her husband Glaber by his mutiny, seduces the young man and convinces him to demand death for the loser of the match. Spartacus wins (as expected), and when the young man gives the "thumbs down", Batiatus, wishing to ingratiate himself with the boy's powerful father, forces Spartacus to comply and kill Varro. While suffering from both his wound in this match and his remorse and sorrow over having to kill his friend, Spartacus has fever dreams that lead him to discover that Batiatus arranged Sura's death. Knowing that it is all or nothing when it comes to resistance of his enslavement, he resolves to "kill them all" and lead a revolt against the ruling house he once fought for.
In order to get his revenge, Spartacus enlists the help of Crixus and the rest of the gladiators to defeat the house of Batiatus once and for all. A battle to the death between Crixus and Spartacus is arranged for the Capua elite at the ludus. Doctore (who Batiatus refers to by his real name, Oenomaus) confronts Batiatus about Barca's death and Ashur's hand in it. Spartacus gains support from Mira who is tasked with opening the gate to the villa from the training area. Crixus resists aiding Spartacus in hopes of reuniting with Naevia. However, after learning he was weakened to ensure Spartacus' victory, at the last moment he joins with Spartacus. Doctore initially stops Spartacus from killing Batiatus. In the ensuing chaos of the gladiators killing the guards and some guests, Crixus persuades Doctore to join him with Spartacus, Illithyia escapes and has her guards seal the outside door to the ludus, Doctore, making good on his word, tries to kill Ashur but ends up being eluded, Crixus grievously wounds Batiatus' wife, Lucretia, with a sword stab to her abdomen piercing her womb and killing their unborn child, Aurelia kills Numerius after revealing to him that Varro was her husband, and Spartacus finally kills Batiatus in front of the seriously wounded Lucretia. After the massacre, Spartacus vows to free Rome of its slavery.
The series aired in Canada on TMN beginning on January 25, 2010.[4] RTL 5 announced in their January newsletter that Spartacus: Blood and Sand will debut in the Netherlands in March.[5] In the United Kingdom, Bravo will air the series beginning on May 25.[6][7] The series is also scheduled to premiere in Poland on HBO Poland starting from June 19, 2010 [2] and in Hungary on HBO Magyarország starting from June 1, 2010 [3].[8] In Latin America the series will be release in July 2010 by Moviecity Pack.[9] The series airs in Ireland on TV3[10].
On December 22, 2009, a month before it premiered, it was announced that the show was renewed by Starz for a second season. On March 9, 2010, IGN.com reported that production of Season 2 had been delayed due to star Whitfield being diagnosed with early-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.[11] Due to the delay, Starz announced on May 11, 2010, that it is developing a six-episode prequel "Spartacus" Gods of the Arena" to Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The prequel features new and returning stars, headlining the roles of John Hannah as Batiatus, and Lucy Lawless as Lucretia. Star Andy Whitfield will also briefly appear. Production begins in New Zealand in the summer of 2010 and the prequel will air beginning January 2011.[12]
The premiere episode of the series set a record for Starz, with 553,000 viewers on their network, and another 460,000 on Encore, where the show was available only that weekend.[13] For the rest of the season had 1.285 million average viewers Critical reception of the first episode was varied; the review aggregate website Metacritic which assigns a normalized average score out of 100 gave the show a score of 54% based on 22 reviews.[14] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave it the grade B+, saying it "might prove to be the not-at-all-guilty pleasure of the season."[15] Barry Garron of the Hollywood Reporter suggested that with "such thin stories...it's small wonder that sex and violence are used to take up the slack."[16] Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that John Hannah as Batiatus "keeps the show grounded with a persuasive portrait of a man engaged in a stressful daily business" and called Whitfield as Spartacus "handsome and buff and smart and beastly."[17] Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald gave the season finale a positive review, rating it a B+. He commented on the improvement of the series throughout its first season.[18]
The prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, will begin production in August 2010 and shoot six episodes. The prequel will premiere in January 2011. The plot will tell the story of Batiatus (John Hannah) who is not yet the head of his family or of the gladiator training school. Gannicus is the lead gladiator in the Ludus, but the House of Batiatus has not earned social respect or the right for its gladiators to fight in championship bouts. Gannicus struggles to turn around the House's luck.
Producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert have stated they use two historical consultants, with whom they exchanged scripts.[2] Historical details of the life of Spartacus before the rebellion, which the first season of the series depicts, are limited.[19]
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