Spartacus trailer

If you begged to the heavens for a cable TV series that told a story like GLADIATOR while shamelessly emulating the visual style of 300, well… Starz and Sam Raimi have apparently heard your plea.

The teaser for the upcoming Starz series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” jams in all sorts of the digital overcranking, comic-style environments, sweaty musclemen and gratuitous bloodshed that made 300 a bloody huge success (hell, they even grabbed one of that movie’s actors). Historically accurate? Maybe!

Raimi and the producers behind “Xena: Warrior Princess” also brought back their star Lucy Lawless for more swords-and-sandals action. Check out the carnage and official statement below.

Debuting exclusively on Starz, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” is produced by Starz Media with Executive Producers Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi (Spider-Man and Evil Dead), Joshua Donen The Quick and the Dead), along with Steven S. DeKnight (“Angel,” “Smallville, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”).

The UK-born and Australia-based Andy Whitfield portrays Spartacus, a soldier in the Roman Auxiliary who is taken prisoner. As punishment for defying a Roman Legate, Spartacus is sentenced to die in the gladiator arena. But after surviving numerous fights, his sentence is commuted and is sold as a slave to be trained as a gladiator. A newcomer in the U.S., Whitfield has gained acclaim in numerous Australian drama series (“McLeod’s Daughters,” “Packed to the Rafters,” “The Strip” and “Out of the Blue”) and also starred in the feature film Gabriel, one of the highest grossing films at the Australian Box Office in 2007. He recently wrapped shooting on the Australian feature, The Clinic.

Lucy Lawless is cast as Lucretia, who along with her husband Batiatus (John Hannah of THE MUMMY), own the slave Spartacus and the Ludus (a gladiator camp) where the former soldier learns the ways of the arena fighter. The couple has fallen on hard times financially and has bought Spartacus hoping his fighting prowess will help them regain their status in the brutal world of gladiatorial contests. Among her many roles, Lawless is best known for portraying “Xena: Warrior Princess” in the long-running global hit series, and has appeared in Syfy’s critically acclaimed “Battlestar Galactica.”