Oscar winner Roman Polanski will next direct the ambitious and expensive epic POMPEII about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy. The film will be based on the novel of the same name and, like another disaster flick TITANIC, will follow a young character “emeshed in politics and romance” before the volcano’s explosion in the third act. Robert Harris, author of the novel will write the script with input from Polanski. Financing for the film will come from private funding sources as do most of Polanski’s modern films. Polanski said in a statement, “It will be very dependent on visual effects,” the first time the director has worked on a FX heavy epic like this one. The film is currently budgeted at $130 million and is expected to begin shooting in Italy this summer. Polanski confirmed that no US distributors have been approached about coming aboard the film and likely wouldn’t until later in the process. Neither of the two late-90s films on volcanoes (VOLCANO and DANTE’S PEAK) fared very well with critics or at the box-office but could POMPEII be a major turnaround? GLADIATOR meets TITANIC?