During his regularly scheduled break from having his wife dress in leather and fight zombies for the Resident Evil films, Paul WS Anderson has chosen to indulge in a little period action, this time visiting the doomed city of Pompeii. He’s just rounded up a star, with Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harrington now in negotiations.

Pompeii, which has been in development for several years, will chronicle a love story set against the true-life tragedy. Think Titanic, but with molten lava instead of giant icebergs, sinking ships and freezing water.

Harrington will be a slave, stuck on a ship near the city, who has to race against time to save his master’s daughter, who also happens to be his true love. There’s also the matter of helping his best pal, a gladiator trapped in the arena just as Mount Vesuvius begins to lethally blow its top and destroy the Roman city. It’ll be less “Are you not entertained?” and more, “Are you not incinerated?”….

Anderson, working from a script by Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler, is looking to shoot next year. Harrington was last seen on the big screen in Silent Hill: Revelation. He’ll next show up in The Seventh Son and provides a voice for How To Train Your Dragon 2, due in 2014.