One Final Trailer for Very Unique ‘Seneca’ Film Starring John Malkovich

One Final Trailer for Very Unique ‘Seneca’ Film Starring John Malkovich

by Alex Billington
March 27, 2025
Source: YouTube

“I did it for Rome.” Freestyle Digital Media has debuted their official trailer for the film Seneca, made by director Robert Schwentke who worked in Hollywood for years (he last made Snake Eyes before this). The full title is actually Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes – this first premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival a few years ago and opened in Germany that year. But most critics hated it and reviews have been harsh. It’s about the relationship between Seneca and Nero, the infamous Emperor he mentored since childhood and who accused him of plotting his assassination. The plot revolves around Nero telling him to kill himself and Seneca’s response to this directive. “Schwentke has made a pyrotechnic display of a film that is almost peerless in its use of over-the-top punchlines, splatter-sarcasm, love of verbal precocity. Stunning & incredibly topical, Seneca asks: is the educated elite a victim of tyranny or an opportunistic collaborator? The time is indeed ripe for political allegories.” John Malkovich stars as the intellectual Italian stoic philosopher in Ancient Rome, with a cast including Tom Xander, Geraldine Chaplin, Louis Hofmann, and Lilith Stangenberg. Most people won’t be into this film, but I saw it and appreciated how it’s an enraged outburst against the greed & nonsense within Ancient Rome (acting as a metaphor for everything now, too).

Here’s the final official US trailer (+ poster) for Robert Schwentke’s film Seneca, direct from YouTube:

You can rewatch the original two trailers for Schwentke’s Seneca film right here for even more footage.

As the foster father and mastermind of the later Emperor Nero, Seneca (John Malkovich) is instrumental in the rise of the smug newborn tyrant. The philosopher, known for his great speeches on renunciation and clemency, is himself one of the richest men in archaic Rome. But when one day the student tires of his teacher, Nero orders Seneca to kill himself. Is Seneca ready for an honorable suicide, or is there still some time left for philosophical debauchery and sharp-tongued lessons? Seneca is directed by the German writer / filmmaker Robert Schwentke, director of the films Tattoo, The Family Jewels, Flightplan, The Time Traveler’s Wife, RED, R.I.P.D., Divergent: Insurgent, Allegiant, The Captain, and Snake Eyes previously. The screenplay is written by Robert Schwentke and Matthew Wilder. Produced by Karim Debbagh, Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti. This initially premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival a few years ago (read our review), and it already opened in Germany in early 2023, as well as in other countries. Freestyle Digital Media releases Schwentke’s Seneca in direct-to-VOD in the US starting April 8th, 2025. Who’s intrigued?

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