Roland Emmerich To Remake ‘Lawrence of Arabia'

Roland Emmerich is developing a “Lawrence of Arabia” remake as a “3-season prestige TV series.” Anthony McCarten (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) is hoping to write the entire first season.

Emmerich, who describes this remake as his long-gestating passion project, is currently shopping the show around, which might be titled “In Arabia.” Who will budge? He apparently wants over $100M to make it.

David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guiness and Omar Sharif, is considered one the seminal films of the 1960s, and the “epic to end all epics.” The film clocked in at 3 hours 42 minutes,.

Emmerich is coming off 2022’s “Moonfall,” one of the worst films of the present decade. “Moonfall” was so bad that it made his other nadirs, which include “Universal Soldier,” “Godzilla,” “The Thirteenth Floor,” “10,000 BC” and “2012,” seem watchable. There’s a reason he’s known as the “master of disaster.”

In his near four-decade career as a filmmaker, the German-born Emmerich has delivered two half-decent films: 1996’s “Independence Day” and 2000’s “The Patriot.” On-paper, giving him to keys to ‘Arabia’ is not only a fool’s errand, but could quite possibly result in catastrophe.

The film tackles the journey of British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) who is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. Lawrence soons rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.

The latest trend in Hollywood seems to be remaking classics. Over the past year (or two), Hollywood has greenlit remakes of “Vertigo,” “High & Low,” “The Conversation,” “Night of the Hunter,” “East of Eden,” “Possession,” “Wages of Fear,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Naked Gun” and “Body Heat.”