(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 20 - Independence Day director Roland Emmerich's first foray into TV, a gladiator epic starring two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins as Vespasian, the emperor who began work on the Colosseum, started shooting at Cinecittà in Rome on Monday.
    The series, Those About to Die, is based on Daniel Mannix's 1958 book of the same name.
    Among the cast are Johannes Haukur Johannesson as Viggo, a hulking Norwegian gladiator, and Kyshan Wilson, the Kubra of 'Mare Fuori 3' as Aura, a young woman sold to become a gladiator.
    The show is described as an epic historical drama set within the "complex and corrupt world of spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition" in ancient Rome featuring "an ensemble of diverse characters across the many layers of Roman society where sports, politics and business intersect and collide." Produced by AGC Studios with Emmerich as executive producer with Gianni Nunnari and Harald Kloser, it is written by Oscar nominated screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) and will go out on Comcast-owned NBCUniversal's streaming platform Peacock. (ANSA).