Christopher Collom

Unique traits: Transitioned careers late in life (50's), but am probably one of only a very few screenwriters that can identify just about any fossil you show me. [as a paleontologist, I taught the History of Life course at the University of Calgary to hundreds of students.]

• Graphic Novel adaptation of Pilot episode

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  Herod The Great – Pilot Episode (#1) Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama In the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar, Rome is on the brink of violent revolution. In this chaotic world, Herod and his family find themselves entangled in the intrigues of the factions vying for political power in Judea. Cleopatra is likewise suddenly alone and vulnerable, but not without a plan. The appearance of a mysterious man (Marc Antony, disguised) changes everything, and sets them on a course leading to unknown circumstance and certain danger.

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  Herod the Great - Episode #2 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Arsinoë continues her escape as a stowaway, boarding a merchant vessel at Halicarnassus. The crew of three Greek brothers befriend her, teaching her sailing skills. At the impressionable age of three, Caesarion is shown the mummified body of Alexander the Great in an Egyptian mausoleum. His mother Cleopatra sends a letter to Marc Antony offering her armies and resources, although her motive is self-preservation. In Rome, Herod discovers that Nicolaus was actually sent by Antony and not Brutus. In the first meeting of the Senate since Caesar’s assassination, Antony implicates Trebonius for his complicity in the murder, and has him arrested.    Antipater visits Antigonus the Hasmonean prince in his prison cell in Rome, where he has been for many years. The meeting doesn’t go well, and Antigonus vows revenge on Herod should he ever again be free. Meanwhile, Herod returns to the empty Circus Maximus and relives a vision from his childhood that shakes him to his core.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #3 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Marc Antony intends to use Julius Caesar's funeral as a venue for demonizing the conspirators in a very public way. Things don't go according to plan, and a riot ensues. Antipater and family must flee Rome. They sail from Rome to Judea; onboard, Nicolaus records Herod's account of his fateful meeting with Cleopatra. Arsinoë and the Greek sailors get into trouble at Rhodes, killing some homeless urchins. In Gaza, her sister Cleopatra confronts Herod's mother Cypros; her Egyptian ship departs for Rome just before Antipater arrives with their sons and daughter.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #4 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Herod makes a new enemy when he and Nicolaus run afoul of a well-connected trader at a caravanserai in Gaza. Near Cyprus, Arsinoë is captured by pirates. The sailors are killed & she has to reveal her royal identity, becoming a hostage for ransom. Cleopatra and Arsinoë are soon re-united, after a bloody battle with the pirates. Marc Antony sets sail for Tarsus, intending to have Cleopatra testify on Caesar's assassination. He leaves Octavian and Lepidus in charge of cleaning up Rome after the riots.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #5 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Herod, his brothers, and Nicolaus cross arid land to Avdat. The trip is perilous, and they have a run-in with local Bedouins. Along the coast road, Antipater, Cypros and Salome meet high priest Hyrcanus. With him is Malichus, who has sinister motives. Together, the group goes to meet Cassius, Roman ruler of the east. In tarsus, Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoë are met by Marc Antony. Fatefully, Antony and Cleopatra are soon in each other's arms.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #6 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Marc Antony and General Dolabella meet in the port of Antioch to negotiate control of the eastern Roman armies; Antony promises Dolabella command of those legions in exchange for a revenge killing. Antony and Cleopatra are re-united. She reports the temple of Artemis refused to take back Arsinoë, arguing Cassius and Brutus had jurisdiction. Enraged by this, Antony plans to visit Ephesus to exact vengeance. At the temple of Isis in Ephesus, Arsinoë gets to know her new handler Neos - although they get off to a rocky start. In Tullianum prison in Rome, Antigonus kills a look-alike inmate that is placed in his cell. Thinking him to be the other man, guards transfer Antigonus to a holding jail in the lower city, where the Tiber begins to flood from incessant rains. He escapes when the cells are flooded. On his way to a meeting with Cassius in Jerusalem, Herod goes through Jericho to retrieve his part of the tribute payment. En route, he relates to Nicolaus the siege of Alexandria and rescue of Julius Caesar four years prior.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #7 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Herod transports one hundred talents of silver from Jericho to Jerusalem, where he presents Cassius with the enormous amount, only a day after the demand for tribute is made. Herod and his wife Doris have an argument about his dedication to parental duties to his son. Marc Antony arrives in Ephesus and violently extracts Arsinoë from the Isis sanctuary, and has her strangled on the front steps of the temple of Artemis. Cleopatra instructs her eunuch Apollodorus in Alexandria to poison her youngest brother Ptolemy. In less than a week Cleopatra has shed her last two siblings and rightful claimants to Egyptian rule.  Cassius confided much to Herod during a night of heavy drinking, while Malichus is berated by Cassius for not gathering taxes efficiently. Antipater intervenes, but this only causes Malichus to become more resentful. As the episode ends, Malichus consults an apothecary to obtain a poisonous potion intended for his new target: Herod.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #8 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Having made an improbable escape from prison in Rome, Antigonus finds passage to the Parthian Empire. There he makes an enemy of prince Pacorus I, heir to the throne of his father Orodes II, by defiling a Zoroastrian fire ceremony. Later, Antigonus convinces the Parthian king to invade Judea, and restore the Hasmoneans to power. Antony returns to Cleopatra, but sends her to Egypt when he discovers she is pregnant with his child. Malichus obtains poison from an alchemist in Jerusalem. He passes it to Hyrcanus’ butler, to place in Antipater’s wine. Herod and his father are attacked outside the city gates by hired thugs. They survive, amazingly. Herod is reunited with his wife & child, and Tero – his father’s main security guard. Herod and his mother & sister want to keep Malichus alive, Phasael and Tero want him murdered.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #9 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama At Giza, in the shadow of the Pyramids, Caesarion is named the new Pharaoh. Afterwards, Cleopatra reluctantly attends the funeral of her brother Theos, whom she had poisoned. He is laid to rest within a modest mausoleum in Thebes. Across the Mediterranean, Arsinoë is similarly placed into a small tomb in Ephesus, having been strangled by Antony’s men. In Parthia, Antigonus and Orodes begin building an Army that will soon invade Judea.       Malichus is verbally & physically chastised a 2nd time by Cassius (with Antipater again intervening) – but this time at the Jerusalem Temple. Malichus plots with a palace butler to poison Herod or his father. At Hyrcanus' insistence, Antipater flees to the remote Machaerus Fortress for safety, until Cassius departs for Greece.

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  Herod the Great – Episode #10 Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama Cassius departs for Syria, leaving Herod to deliver an edict of enslavement to four cities north of Jerusalem; punishment for full tribute not having been delivered. In Parthia, Antigonus pledges a thousand talents and five-hundred female servants to King Orodes. On the march, the Parthian army reaches and crosses the Euphrates River. Antony departs for Greece with most of the Roman army, leaving Dolabella to defend the Syrian coast with a small force.      Antipater returns from the Perean wilderness; he and Hyrcanus hold a banquet at the palace. Malichus attends, and with assistance from Hyrcanus' butler poisons Antipater's wine. Phasael sends riders to find Herod and bring him back before his father dies. Forced to change his route by angry mobs from the enslaved cities, Herod travels through the Decapolis and stays at the Hasmonean villa in Scythopolis. There, fatefully, he meets and falls in love with Mariamne. Antipater dies before Herod returns to Jerusalem, causing his son Herod to become consumed in anguish and anger.

• university of calgary
  (1993-1998)

• Brigham Young University
  (1989-1992)

• University of Colorado - Boulder
  (1983-1988)