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PARIS -- Director Oliver Stone says he's optimistic that his historical epic "Alexander" will do well in Europe after getting off to a disappointing start at home.

"People in America are apathetic to ancient history -- they are," Stone told reporters Thursday in Paris. "They don't study the classics like they do in Europe, so there is a significant difference in reaction. I know this because I've been in 12 foreign countries in the last month, to 12 openings."

The director noted that his film -- based on the life of Alexander the Great -- was No. 1 in about 18 countries, including Greece. He said he's happy just to share the story of Alexander.

"It was a privilege to make a film about such a unique man, so financial concerns were not uppermost," he said. "I'm glad people can at least get a part of his mind and remember this man, because he will be forgotten."

Stone said he's disappointed in the focus in America on Alexander's sexuality, which has also preoccupied Greek moviegoers.

A group of Greek lawyers, who deny that Alexander had male lovers as the film purports, briefly considered taking Stone to court to ask that a disclaimer be shown before the filming warning audiences it wasn't historically accurate.

"I find it somewhat juvenile to concentrate on a man's sexual preferences over the concept of what he did with his whole life," he said. "It's to trivialize, and that's what's going on in so much of American life, not just movies, but politics. It's a picking apart, a deconstruction of all the little details and avoiding the big picture, not seeing the whole."

Politics, he argued, might have been a more appropriate focus for viewers looking for controversy.

"If you're going to start talking about headlines, why don't you start to talk about the strange parallels between Alexander's empire building and America's empire building that they did in the Near East?" he said. "They didn't do that in America. They did it in Europe; they're doing it in Europe much more.

"I think one of the reasons -- this is speculation -- is that perhaps Americans are uncomfortable with the idea that someone else tried it first and maybe tried it better," Stone added.

The film, which cost a reported $150 million, opens in France on Jan. 5.

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