The two networks have teamed up to acquire the rights to the bane of so many English students. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the two executive producers (one from BBC and one from HBO) produced the “Rome” miniseries.

For those that are unfamiliar, I, Claudius pretty much reads like “The Wire” in Roman times. The chief difference is that rather than serve up omnipresent narration, I, Claudius is told through the eyes of a man named…Claudius. I really feel like you high school civics class should have imparted all this information on you.

The miniseries has been hatched after a feature-length adaptation starring Leo DiCaprio and The Departed scribe William Monahan failed to get out of development. Deadline reports that the new mini-series will be based largely on two other books that Graves wrote with the same protagonist, so even if you caught the 13-part BBC miniseries, the upcoming story will be new to you.

No word on schedule, but expect HBO to take its time with such a prestige project.