LOS ANGELES -- Editor's note: Sentinel television critic Hal Boedeker reports from the Television Critics Association winter tour, where networks preview their midseason offerings.

Spartacus director Robert Dornhelm remembers seeing the 1960 version, directed by Stanley Kubrick, as a teenager in Romania. "When the offer came to re-do it, I was, of course, first very intimidated," he says. "But then I revisited the movie and, as much as I adore and respect Kubrick, I do not think that this is one of his better movies."

USA Network will explore the slave leader's story in a four-hour miniseries April 18 and 19. The new version returns to the source material, Howard Fast's novel, and depicts some characters that were not in the original film.

Executive producer Angela Mancuso defends the remake for exploring the same political themes, such as personal freedom and segregation, that were pertinent more than 40 years ago. "I think it's more relevant today to look at the fact that we haven't maybe progressed as far as we think we have," she says.

By revisiting familiar titles, programmers can be assured they'll gain attention in the crowded television landscape. They frequently defend their remakes by saying that younger viewers haven't seen the earlier versions or that new technology and more modern attitudes can re-energize the stories.

Yet a new Spartacus will be a tough sell to viewers who know the 1960 film and its strong cast, including Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov in an Oscar-winning performance. The miniseries features Angus MacFadyen in the Olivier role, Rhona Mitra of The Practice in the Simmons part and Alan Bates, who died last month, in his final screen performance.

Visnjic, who plays Dr. Luka Kovac on ER, acknowledged the risk of assuming a role so linked to another actor. "Kirk Douglas is my father's favorite actor," he says. "So when I told my father I'm going to be doing Spartacus and I've made my decision, he was like, 'Better be good.' "

Beyond his personal challenge, Visnjic says the story of slavery in 72 B.C. and rebellion against the Roman Empire needs to be told again. "For Spartacus to create the uprising and to do something was so extraordinary," he says. "I would compare it with inventing the theory of relativity. It was such a huge issue."

'Spartacus' sparks mini
 
USA skeds $20m gladiator event with 'ER' star
 
By MICHAEL FLEMING

 
"ER" star Goran Visnjic will trade scalpel and scrubs for sword and sandals to topline in "Spartacus," a four-hour USA Network mini based on the Howard Fast novel that Stanley Kubrick turned into the 1960 Kirk Douglas drama.

Robert Dornhelm has committed to the project after directing USA's recent James Woods starrer "Rudy."

While best known for playing the brooding hunk doctor Luka Kovac on "ER," Visnjic has been making headway in films like "The Deep End" and the upcoming thriller "Hypnotic."

"He was suggested to me as the right type, and he had all the physicality needed for the role, plus this sad, somewhat despairing Eastern European look," said Dornhelm.

Alan Bates has been cast to play Agrippa, the role played by Charles Laughton in the Kubrick classic.

Dornhelm said his version of the epic will be quite different from the one done by Kubrick. He just arrived in Bulgaria, where the pic will shoot on a $20 million budget.

"They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but six weeks isn't a long time to accomplish it either," Dornhelm said. "We've got 400 people here, and we'll build the gladiator school, the Senate, the streets of Rome and the underground Roman baths. It's big stuff, and the people here are very excited to build our version of the revolt by slaves." He added that the Bulgarians are working cheaply to re-create ancient Rome.

Dornhelm has made socially conscious TV films like "RFK" and "Sins of the Father," but "Spartacus" is his first period pic.

Still, it has relevance to current events, Dornhelm said. "There are interesting parallels about power and evildoers."

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