Fox awaits his guest in a sunny suite in Los Angeles. A long-limbed and slender gent, in a gray suit and tie, with fraying cuffs (Stone describes Fox, 58, as a cross between Ian Fleming and Peter Sellers), he is an eccentric in the British tradition, which made him a nice match for Stone.
Well-traveled, polyglot, erudite, madcap, Fox lives in an old stone monastery, he used to mount fox hunts, and he is the author of the longest-running newspaper column in the United Kingdom (34 years and counting) for the Financial Times, on gardening.
A scene from Oliver Stone's "Alexander," which opens this week. Historian Robin Lane Fox's role was to bridge the gap between entertainment and scholarship.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
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He also has spent his entire academic career absolutely obsessed with Alexander; his 1973 biography, "Alexander the Great," is probably the most widely read popular book on the topic. And he admits he was wary of the director at first. Filmmakers have been talking about another Alexander project since the release of the first one, in 1956, starring Richard Burton.
The challenges of screen adaptation were manifold: Alexander's appetites were extraordinary; though he died at age 32, his epic conquests were huge, from Greece to Egypt, through modern-day Turkey and the biblical lands, to Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and on to India (where he fought troops mounted upon war elephants -- the 3rd century B.C.'s version of the Abrams tank). And controversial: Was Alexander a visionary liberator or an antecedent of Hitler?
His tutor? Guy named Aristotle.
His favorite author? Umm, Homer.
He thought himself the heir of Achilles (see: Brad Pitt in "Troy").
Then, there was the question of how to honestly portray Alexander's lifelong male crush -- Platonic and erotic -- on Hephaistion, which was notable even at the time. (One ancient wag suggested that Alexander was never defeated, "except by Hephaistion's thighs.") Alexander's contemporaries appear to have remarked upon his excessive mourning and elaborate funeral arrangements for dear, recently dead (probably from typhoid) Hephaistion. Alexander is said to have mooned around the palace for weeks, cut off his hair and hair from the manes and tails of his horses, and declared that Hephaistion would be worshiped as a divine hero.
Despite reservations, Fox was smitten by Stone's dash and vision. Here was a director with the ego, the brass to tackle Fox's beloved Alexander.
In addition to his financial compensation as historical adviser, Fox had an unusual demand, non-negotiable: He would ride in the front 10 of every major cavalry charge filmed of Alexander and his Macedonians.
To his credit, Stone said: deal.
What the critics and audiences will make of Stone's "Alexander" is to be seen. Will they be able to follow the sprawling narrative, with all its ancient geography of archaic place names, and strange customs and costumes? Will they applaud or titter at the sight of the age-inappropriate Jolie as the plump-lipped Olympias with her pet pythons? Val Kilmer as hoary, one-eyed Philip? And especially, Colin Farrell in blond wig and short skirt, sighing to his loyal Hephaistion in the hanging gardens of Babylon, "Stay with me tonight."
For his part, Fox says that Stone "got" Alexander and that his dramatized version is historically defensible.
"One of the most important themes in the movie, and I think Oliver got it spot-on, is that Alexander had the spell of youth," Fox says.
