'Game of Thrones' Star to Topline Disaster Pic 'Pompeii'

Kit Harington, one of the stars of HBO's Game of Thrones, is in negotiations to topline Pompeii, the big-screen treatment of the volcanic destruction of the ancient Roman city being directed by Resident Evil maestro Paul W.S. Anderson.

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Constantin Film is financing and producing the big-budget title, which Summit/Lionsgate will distribute in the U.S.

The 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its showering of molten and ashen death on the town is one of history’s great disaster stories and has seen several screen incarnations.

Constantin and Anderson are making a period adventure movie and taking a Titanic approach, anchoring it with a love story.

Harington will play a slave stuck on a ship who must race against time to save his true love, his master’s daughter, as well as his best friend, a gladiator trapped in the coliseum when the destruction begins.  

Anderson, who most recently directed the $221 million worldwide-grossing Resident Evil: Retribution, is also producing with partner Jeremy Bolt and Constantin’s Robert Kulzer.

Harington plays Jon Snow on Thrones, HBO’s acclaimed fantasy. The actor has just started taking steps into the feature world and will appear in Legendary’s fantasy The Seventh Son and is doing voice work in DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Harington was set to star in Warner Bros. medieval action pic Arthur & Lancelot, but that project was shelved.

He is repped by CAA, Parseghian Planco and Jackoway Tyerman.