Paul WS Anderson directs Pompeii

A classic disaster event returns to the silver screen. Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil, Alien vs. Predator) is set to direct Pompeii, a film about — you guessed it — the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The screenplay, written by Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler (whose credits include Batman Forever), apparently does the Titanic thing and uses the disaster as a backdrop to a grand romance. According to Variety, the plot

revolves around the slave of a shipping tycoon who dreams of the day he can buy his freedom and marry his master’s daughter. What the slave doesn’t know is that she’s already been promised to a corrupt Roman senator, while he’s been sold to another owner.

Just when things can’t get any worse, Mt. Vesuvius erupts with the power of 40 nuclear bombs. But the slave is trapped on a ship headed for Naples, separated from his love and best friend, a gladiator who is trapped in the city’s coliseum. As fire and ash destroy the only world he’s ever known, the slave is determined to get back and rescue them.

If all goes according to plan, shooting will start in spring 2012.

There’s no lack of predecessors in this case. According to this Wikipedia entry, there has been at least seven films and one television mini-series about Pompeii.