New Lawrence of Arabia TV series could be filmed in Ireland

Stephen Porzio

EXCLUSIVE: Director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow) has told JOE of his plans to adapt the story of T.E. Lawrence for the small screen and how he may shoot the project in Ireland.

A long-time passion project for director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day) has been to adapt the story of British lieutenant T.E. Lawrence for television.

Famous for his role in the Arab Revolt during World War I, Lawrence was famously played onscreen by Peter Toole in legendary director David Lean’s 1962 classic movie epic Lawrence of Arabia.

JOE recently interviewed Emmerich about his new Prime Video Ancient Rome-set series Those About to Die – a conversation in which he spoke about the connections between his new show and Gladiator, as well as about a sequel to The Day After Tomorrow.

On top of this, we asked the filmmaker if he would ever consider shooting a project in Ireland – given the rise in Hollywood productions coming here to film.

In response, he said: “Actually, what I want to do next is a TV show about Lawrence of Arabia.”

We then asked if this would be something he would consider shooting in Ireland, to which he responded: “Yes, absolutely,” before adding: “But do they have a volume stage?”

For those not aware, a volume stage is an entertainment technology for TV and film production which has become increasingly popular in recent years since its pioneering use on Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

It sees LED panels used as a backdrop for a set, onto which video or computer-generated imagery can be displayed in real-time.

“That’s kind of the new technique I discovered on Those About to Die,” Emmerich added.

“I shot 108 days on a volume stage… Now I don’t want to shoot anything on a blue screen or green screen anymore.”

When we asked what separates a volume stage from other technologies, the director explained:

“When you have a background which has a certain light, then you can do this all day and nothing is changing. You know what I mean? So if you have a magic hour shot, you can can shoot magic hour all day. That’s the kind of real big thing.

“Also if you cleverly use it – we, for example, did the first kind of test very early and we realised: ‘Oh my god, we can shoot all the close-ups with a rendered out shot in Unreal Engine [a physics engine software],’ which looks totally real.

“We shot just two charioteers in front of it and it looked awesome and I want to this much more.”

As for Emmerich’s query, JOE did a bit of research and it appears that Ireland does not currently have a volume stage.

However, one will be ready for use sometime in 2025 at Studio Ulster in Northern Ireland so perhaps the director will be able to film his Lawrence of Arabia show on the island.

Emmerich has said in other interviews that Oscar-nominated writer Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Darkest Hour) is working on the project and that a pilot script has already been written.