Another King Arthur movie?!!?
 

Do we need another movie about Arthur and his merry band of noble knights?

Well, I've seen the trailers to this movie and though they look nice, I was hoping that they(the movie folk) would try something different. There are a series of books by Jack Whyte called The Calamud (sp?) that are neat take on the Arthurian legends. And I think that they are epic enough and personal enough to make a good movie.

I hear there are two versions of the tale coming out soon; one a re-telling of the legend and one a thoroughly researched account of the actual events that inspired it. I think one is in black and white...

The one that I was posting about was the re-telling, but documentary one(?) sounds fascinating. Thanks for the heads up.

It's not so much a documentary as a historical action flick.

I hear Keira Knightley's popping up in one.

Yes,she's to play Guienvere(sp?) in the movie King Arthur . It is the movie that I saw the trailer of and she looks delectable!yuuuummmmy!

I'm not a big Keira Knightley fan. Too boyish for me.

But, Clive Owen as Arthur should be good.

The previews have my interested up.

I saw the trailer for King Arthur and it looks really good--as a historical action movie. The music, costumes, sets, and battle scenes all look rather impressive. I'm just planning on taking it as it is rather than trying to compare it to the multitude of other King Arthur movies and stories.

The Guinevere Kiera Knightly plays is a Celt who goes into battle complete with lack of clothes and blue war paint. It's an nice take on a character who is usually portrayed as being quite feminine and utterly helpless without her knight in shining armour.

Should be interesting, anyway.

oh come on!
- you can't get any better than "Excalibur"!!!

Well my personal opinion is that there can't be too many King Arthur movies! :D

I've got to second that. Quality varies, but its a tale that one never really tires of.

I don't think Keira Knightley looks boyish - don't even go there!!! :D

A friend worked on the new Clive Owen 'King Arthur' movie (as an extra). I was actually due to pop up as a Roman Centurion (also as an extra) but I didn't have the required two weeks to spare.

This is the Disney movie with Keira Knightley, by the way... My friend played a pictish warrior and reported that the battle scenes are impressive. Historically the movie is so-so. Arthur is a roman scion who stays behind when the empire withdraws, and builds his realm with Merlin's help. No more details than that, really. Knightley apparently was involved in the battle scenes, so expect a Bond girl style Guinnevere.

The director is the black guy who did 'Training Day'. By all accounts he was a nice guy to everyone on set, and very enthusiastic.

Bah! I'm not one of those who complain about all the remakes. I personally support it, since after all we finally have the technology to truely bring these stories to life, why not? The old versions, in truth, S U C K!!!! And the one ones, of course, rock!

Has anyone seen George Romero's Knightriders?
It's supposed to be a King Arthur story against a backdrop of motorcycle gangs.

I've seen something like it.It had motorcycles Ren-festival enactors,jousting, a very similair Arthurian settings and peole, but I have forgotten the actors names, the title , but I do remember the king"Arthur"(I think it was Ed Glen??)losing it and has a final 'joust' with a semi.

I think that was it.Ed Harris played the lead role.

Thanks!! I had the hardest time recalling the actors name. What I remember of the movie is that I liked it.

Looking forward to this film tremendously :)

Looks good sofar, if perhaps a little low budget. Still, we might at last get a decent Arthurian film.

I'm not so sure about the movie. I'd like to see really mythological film, not a "historical" one. Honestly, what do they need Merlin or Morgan for if everything is realistic? And Lancelot and (his son) Galahad as almost the same age? What, are they going to be brothers again? Bah!

Yes, it's really going to be very different from the medieval Arthurian legend, this is their historical take on it, fifth or sixth centure, Britons fighting against invading Anglo-Saxons. It's an interesting take, but I agree that it would be nice if someone would actually do a cool representation of the traditional Arthurian legend as influenced by the French romances and Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur.

Also, it irritates me that they continue to tag this film as the True Story of King Arthur. The scholar they hired, John Matthews, is not a respected scholar in the field but actually a writer of many of these New Age Celtic books like "Celtic Totem animals" , Celtic wisdom", "The Arthurian Tarot" etc. That doesn't bode well from the historical point of view, and that's a euphemism.

Still, could be a fantastic and atmospheric movie. I just wish they'd lay aside those claims of truthfulness. If even respected historians can't come to a consensus, these moviemakers can?

The Hype
 

The tag line made me groan onward, too. Yea, I would like to see someone to a fairly accurate re-telling of Mallory's Arthur. It would just be so cool to see. And if want some historical revision of Arthur and his world, I'd like to see Jack Whyte's Calamund series made into movies or a tv mini-series.

If they want to make a film about the "historical Arthur" they should use the book by Rosemary Sutcliff "The Sword At Sunset". It was published in 1963 and just seems so right based on the evidence that scholars knew about dark age Britain. There is no Lancelot who was a French invention that was put in centuries later. If you can find the book by all means read it also you might want to get the prequal "The Lantern-Bearer".

This thread had me interested til I saw on tv that jerry bruckheimer's involved. No thank you.

This thread has quite an interesting take on the legend of King Arthur. I wonder if people can clarify whether they believed Arthur existed? The understanding that I have is that there was a king who tried to unite the Britons in the 5th century (circa 490), there is some archaeological and historical evidence that there must have been someone like that, named the Bear. Thomas Mallory was the third or fourth writer to write about him, not the first. An oral tale spread particularly in Brittany and France about this legend, Lancelot was invented in the 12th Century by Chretien De Troy who was a french troubadour. I think the Victorian age was the most influential time for us modern day enthusiasts, but I also think that with the advances of modern technology and a better understanding of historical events, we can glean a much clearer view of arthur than ever before.

The legend of arthur I think should be treated like all legends - it should be made relevant to the era we live in. There are not enough hard facts to say yes there was a merlin, no there wasn't an arthur, but Mallory's is not the only interpretation.

Personally my favourite interpretations were the historical takes - Rosemary Sutcliffe, Mary Stewart, and Bernard Cornwell more recently. I like the fact that Merlin is seen from the view of a religious leader (much more sympathetically now than ever before - again the interpretations of modernity), and that Arthur is seen as a general - what else would he have been? So, I look forward to this film, with one of Britains best screen actors in the lead role.

There was actually a Merlin, dear, a Druid priest/mage, so he would need to be there.

No. At least not the one in the legends. Sure, there might have been a raping and pillaging Briton warlord who tried to unite the island. And they (as there surely would have been several of them) could have had singers and bards doing propaganda for them. They might have even given their names for the characters in the legends.

But an actual King who believed in protecting the innocent and in justice? No. Powerful men don't do that. They might speak about it, but that's all.

Mm. I wonder how they managed to prove that he was actually half-demon and could cast real spells?

For me: reality=no magic. Therefore the Merlin of the Arthurian legends could not have excisted.

Banners? Do you mean big posters? Or real ones?

Tom Savini, the guy who did the make up work for Romero's Zombie films play Mordred. Seriously weird film though.

Anyone see it? I saw it the day it opened. It was kind of flat and anticlimatic. I had no interest in Clive Owen as Arthur and the guy playing Lancelot was a cipher. The guy playing Bors was really the most interesting and human character in the movie.