Rainbow Teams With Paramount for 3D Gladiator Film

LORETO: Rainbow S.p.A. has inked deals with Paramount Pictures and Medusa for its 3D film Not Born to Be Gladiators, to bring the movie into North America and Italy, respectively.

The 85-minute film centers on a boy who is orphaned after the terrible eruption in Pompeii; he is surrounded by gladiators and individuals vying to get into the Gladiators’ Academy of Rome, yet he has no interest in joining them. Paramount is set to handle North American distribution of the movie, while Medusa will distribute in Italy. Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, recently acquired 30 percent of Rainbow and plans to air future Rainbow TV programming on Nickelodeon and distribute features through Paramount.

Not Born to Be Gladiators will be directed by Iginio Straffi, the founder and CEO of Rainbow; the script comes from Michael Wilson, of A Shark’s Tale and Ice Age 2.

Straffi said: "It’s a big opportunity for an independent producer to get a quality 3D CGI-animated comedy to a studio level, we hope to represent a new step forward for European animation in terms of quality and international success."