History has had many great heroes of a rather epic nature. William Wallace, Joan of Arc and Batman to name just a few. While their entire existence is still debated hotly to this day (I believe in you Batman!), one other such history hero that has had plenty of screen time is King Arthur.
Lately though, the Arthurian legend has been left to rot, with attention focused on everyone from Merlin to Morgana Le Fay instead. But it looks like Guy Ritchie is going to pull the sword out of the development hell stone, as he wants to bring Arthur and his roundest of tables back to the big screen.
This isn’t the first time that Ritchie has attempted a King Arthur film, but with Warner Bros now firmly behind him, things could be looking up. This won’t be a single film either, as WB and Ritchie see the Arthurian legend as a six film franchise, which follows Arthur from humble beginnings all the way to his ascent as king of Camelot. Joby Harold has already written a script for the first such film, which will be produced by Akiva Goldsman through Weed Road, Harold and Tory Tunnell through Safehouse Pictures, and Ritchie’s partner Lionel Wigram.
The first attempt by WB to bring back Arthur, Arthur and Lancelot, would have starred Colin Farrell as the knight who can’t keep his lance in his pants and would have had Gary Oldman as Merlin the wizard. After paying $2 million for the script from David Dobkin, plans eventually fell through when the studio was asked to pay $130 million for the film budget, which they wanted to cap at $110 million. There was also another project in the works based on the 1981 film Excalibur, that would have been a remake of that film with Bryan Singer attached.
Suffice to say, ever since the 2004 film that starred Clive Owen as a more Romanesque version of the legend, there’s been plenty of work done behind the scenes. But Guy Ritchie happens to be one of my favourite directors of all time, and if he jumps all the way into this project once he wraps up work on The Man From UNCLE, then I’m going to be damn happy.
Last Updated: January 28, 2014
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 28, 2014 at 09:46
A 6 film franchise?
…we want to make a trilogy… what? everyone is making trilogies, people of tired of trilogies. we need to go bigger! i know, let’s make SIX. because 6 is twice as big as 3!
Who wants to bet that’s how it went down?
Gareth L (That Guy)
January 28, 2014 at 09:50
They should get the complete cast (those available at least, RIP Dennis Farina) of “Lock Stock” and Snatch and make this another of his classic run-around-and-merge-all–stories-at-the-end capers.
“It’s me bring-axe!”
“What are you afraid of, Turkish? Zee Magicians?”