Bruno Heller
Bruno Heller
Bruno Helleris an English screenwriter, producer and director. He is known for creating the HBO television series Rome and CBS television series The Mentalist. He has recently produced the TV series Gotham based on the Batman franchise for FOX...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
entirely felt strange
There he was in the Forum, bellowing at these soldiers, and the whole thing was entirely real. It was a very strange moment. Everyone felt a shiver.
brutal caesar dichotomy filled great movies people sets strangely time victorian view warrior writer
I think it was a brutal time filled with people who were strangely sophisticated and uncivilized. Over the years movies tended to take a Victorian gentleman's view of this world ù all marbleized sets and men. But Caesar was a great warrior and writer and a war criminal, by our definition. ...There was a dichotomy between sophistication and viciousness that was specifically Roman.
brilliant created lasted man operating society strange
(He) must have been a very strange and brilliant man. He ... created a new way of operating a society that lasted for another 500 years.
caught events ordinary people point rome street view
Rome from street level. (It's) Rome from the point of view of ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary events of that time.
historical point seed street took
I essentially took the seed of that idea to try to tell a big, historical epic, but from the street level, the everyman's point of view.
running
Never name a show after a character if you want to be the guy running the show.
art opposed
Film is still an art there, as opposed to an industry.
america dealing issue republic
It's the transformation of a republic into an empire. I think America is dealing with that issue right now.
aspect everyday great historical life novel time
The novel aspect is that it's about everyday life in a time of great historical import.
Everyone is on tenterhooks to see how it is received.
america dealing history issue moment particular pivotal republic turned western
It was a moment in history that's pivotal in western history. If things hadn't turned out the way they did at that particular point, the world that we live in now would be very different ... It's the transformation of a republic into an empire. I think America is dealing with that issue just now.
detail facts felt fine moment precise spirit
It was important to us to get the facts right, but more important the spirit of the times, to be very precise about this moment in history. It was important to get the fine detail right so that you felt that you were in a real world.
character challenges stories
A lot of the challenge with TV, as opposed to making movies, is that you have to leave room for the characters in the story to tell themselves. Sometimes you don't know where a character is going to go and what's going to happen to them until you've seen the actor take that part and make it their own.
blessed years tvs
One of the tricks that you have to learn, with episodic TV, is you don't know how many years you're going to be blessed with.