Just two days ago, I brought you the rundown of what filmmakers were dusting off their Tennyson, Le Morte d’Arthur, T.H. White and John Boorman and heading back to that spot that was once known as Camelot. One of them is now officially official, as Variety reports that Guy Ritchie is attached to direct a new King Arthur film for Warner Bros. But instead of the Warren Ellis script that was being bandied around, Variety says it’ll be scripted by Ritchie and John Hodge.
Beyond that, there’s as little to go on as there was in the scraps of my previous Arthurian article. Variety notes that it will be a “re-imagining” of the Arthur myth, but that it’s drawing on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’ Arthur. This 15th century collection of tales has been the basis of just about every Arthur story to date, including John Boorman’s Excalibur. You can get a little rundown of all the tales on good old Wikipedia, although I recommend buying a copy sometime if you really dig going to the source. They’ve survived from the 15th century for a reason.
So, the big question will be how this version will re-imagine Malory, and how it’s going to contrast with Bryan Singer’s Excalibur remake that’s also at Warner Bros. I like Ritchie for the job, though. He loves England, and I thought Sherlock Holmes really showed a knowledge of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a love of London extended beyond Ritchie gangsters and into a fantasy Victoriana. If he could bring that to the Middle Ages, keep the magic and bromance, and make it look like the sweeping, Pre-Raphaelite vision that many of us cherish, it would be the perfect King Arthur movie.
What do you think?
Filed under: Classics, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, War
I have a weird relationship with 
“And while in my lifetime I’ve seen science make extraordinary inroads into solving the most complex questions of life, after all this time I admit that I am thrilled that there are some things that forever will remain a mystery. For example, do I wear a toupee?” — William Shatner, Up Till Now: An Autobiography
I completely understand the whirlwinds bred out of love for vampires and werewolves. They’re powerful, they’re mysterious, and they often have a nice amount of lusty machismo to make the young ladies go wild. But wolfy prey? Little red riding hood wolfy prey? While not the sort of theme one would usually expect to get dueling projects, there’s now a feature film and television film about the young wolf victim in the works. It just goes to show you what happens when you mix supernatural passion with the trend to remake old tales.
On one end of the comedy spectrum you’ve got the broad antics of the Paul Blart: Mall Cops of the world. They’re loud and they’re base and they’re instantly forgettable because, well, they’re not funny. Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum you can find the smaller comedies, the ones that never fully penetrate into theaters across the nation but find a good deal of success at home thanks to late night cable. And then on the far side you can expect to find an absolute deadpan comedy styling; the word-of-mouth kind that that can serve as a litmus test for someone’s sense of humor. As I think you can probably guess from that introduction, 
I apologize in advance — I’m trying to write this while watching the Oscars. 
Not long from now the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony will begin, and you’ll settle into whatever comfy routine you have for watching stuff like this — whether that means attending an Oscar party with like-minded movie freaks, or just cozying up on your couch at home with a pint of ice cream, the remote and that Avatar blanket you bought on sale earlier this week at Walmart. But do you have everything you need in order to adequately watch the Oscars in a way that will impress your co-workers when it comes time for Monday morning conversations around the cubicle? Here, let us throw a few more things your way before this party really starts to get out of hand.
You know who 
