So what is Weller doing in "Rome: Engineering an Empire"?
"I've been a student of ancient Rome for a very long time," says Weller in a phone interview. "My father was an avid fan ... and he was always touting Italy to us. When I went to Italy and actually walked the ruins of ancient Rome, the whole thing started coming alive to me and I became an Italophile. I started collecting coins from the era and I started opening book after book on it."
Only he didn't stop there.
In his mid-'50s, with a healthy resume of film and TV credits behind him (the "RoboCop" films, "The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension," "Shoot the Moon," "Naked Lunch," "Mighty Aphrodite," Showtime's "Odyssey Five") and a still-active career as an actor and director, Weller found the time to earn a masters degree in Renaissance art from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.
Further, Weller, now 58, is an ad hoc professor at the university and has taught a course, "Hollywood and the Roman Empire."
