The fight over the rights to Robert Graves’ 1934 novel, I, Claudius, has finally come to a conclusion, with producer Scott Rudin agreeing to fork over a cool $2 million for the book’s screen rights. This is great news for fans of the HBO/BBC television series Rome that came to an end earlier in the year, who are yearning for more of the blood, guts, and glory of ancient Rome.

Like the book, the film will tell the story about the Roman Empire as told through the eyes of Claudius, a member of the imperial family who hid his brilliance behind a stutter and a limp, but wound up outsmarting his rivals to become emperor in 41 A.D. The tale ends with the crowning of Nero in 54 A.D. And of course, the book featured all the violence, backstabbing, sex, and debauchery of the Roman ruling class!

Interestingly, it’s already being reported that Leonardo DiCaprioand William Monahan will sign on to do the film. Please, oh please, don’t make DiCaprio sport an accent in this one though - I don’t think I could handle another one of his failed attempts at that again.

So far there’s no studio attached, but it is speculated that Disney could pick it up. That could be a bad thing, considering they’d likely tone it down and cut out some of the sex and violence that characterize the era.

If you can’t wait for the film to be made, in the meantime you might want to see if you can get your hands on the I, Claudius miniseries that the BBC did in 1976. That itself is legendary. Luckily for us, it is available on DVD.