Spoilers Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Pre-Release Thread

Guy Ritchie, the director of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies will be putting his unique stamp on the King Arthur legend with the release of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: Joby Harold
Producers: Steve Clark-Hall
Akiva Goldsman
Guy Ritchie
Joby Harold
Tory Tunnell
Lionel Wigram

Cast:
Charlie Hunnam as King Arthur
Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Guinivere
Jude Law as Vortigern
Djimon Hounsou as Bedivere
Mikael Persbrant as Kjartan
Hermione Corfield as Syren
Annabelle Wallie as Maid Maggie
Aiden Gillen as Goosefat Bill Wallis
Kingsley Ben-Adir as Wetstick
Neil Maskell as Blacklack
Millie Brady as Princess Catia
Thomas Metcalfe as Supporting Mage
David Beckham as Blackleg Leader
Katie McGrath as Elsa

The first trailer was just released at Comic-Con

I like it. I'm starting to really look forward to this, it's got a great cast, I like Ritchie's stuff, and now this trailer was pretty cool.

 

Haven't heard of this one before. Looks like it's being told with an eye to modern styles and sensibilities, I had to laugh at the tag about being raised in the streets. Could be entertaining but it's not one of those movies where I'm like "I didn't know I needed this movie until now".

 

Yup, that trailer screams Guy Ritchie all right.

I would be more excited about this if it didn't have Charlie Hunnam as Arthur. Ugh.

 

i'm a sucker for anything related to the Arthurian Legend.

 

One of my worst movie going experiences was walking out of a theatre after seeing Fuqua's Kinf Arthur and hearing and adult man say to his friends "Wow, so that's how all that really happened!"

Uuggghhh. People getting their history from Jerry Bruickhiemer productions.

Still, like you, I'll watch / read pretty much anything Arthurian.

My dream Arthurian production is based on the Welsh tales - a HBO series having Riothamus as Arthur's Father and Myrddin as his mentor, showing the Welsh and Roman halves of his upbringing, uniting in Arthur as Arthur rising through the ranks and gaining the name "the swine thief" and "the terrible" while meeting and bringing Bedwyr, Gwalchmai, etc. all to his side.

Continuing into his reign and the rebellions and his sons betraying him (not Mordred) to his death.

 

My dream Arthurian production is HTV's Arthur of the Britons from 1972/3.

Kor

 

Don't think I've seen that one.

The Merlin one from the 90's starring Sam Neil is one of my favs. Plot wise it is completely original but it is chalk full of little references to deep Arthurian mythology ignored since Malory.

Stewart's Merlin trilogy (/quadology is you include her book on Mordred) is my favourite modern novel series. There was an animated movie based on the first book but I never found it here.

 

Ever see the Legend of King Arthur made by the BBC in 1979?

 

I never saw the BBC 1979 Legend of King Arthur. The ITV (HTV) series Arthur of the Britons was an interesting attempt to portray Britain in the period after the Romans left and the Saesneg (English) invaded but perhaps it dropped too many aspects of the stories in favour of realism. If I need a Dark Ages fix, I still prefer Excalibur for its OTT view of the legends -- overacting, shiny armour and all. I expect this Guy Ritchie film will be entertaining but it doesn't appear to contain the religious elements that added interest to Arthur of the Britons and Excalibur.

 

Remember the Starz adaptation from, like, 2010 starring Ralph Fiennes and Eva Green? It was horrid. So bad that even when Starz tried to renew it some of the cast refused to come back, and since they took too long before issuing the renewal they couldn't face them to return.

 

^I watched the pilot for that and never got around to continuing. I don't remember hating but I've had it sitting on one of my streaming queues for ages and haven't bothered watching any more of it.
I know it wasn't very accurate the original mythology, but I loved the Merlin series with Katie McGrath, John Hurt's voice, and Anthony Head.
EDIT: I just saw the new trailer, and it was another good one. I'm kind of surprised how little talk there has been about this one. The Comic Con trailer was one of my favorites, but I barely ever even saw it mentioned in any of the discussions of the con's trailers. I guess it must just be getting overwhelmed by the other big movies coming out this year.

 

^It's hard to hate anything with Ralph Fiennes and Eva Green (nude!) in it but the rest of the cast and the writers sure did their best to pull it off.

I'm not a slave to the "original mythology" - it was written closer to today than to the time the events it depicts "actually occurred". I'm pro reinterpretation and original story, as long as the production isn't trying to claim it's "The truth behind the legend" like Bruckheimer, Fuqua, and Franzoni did. I hate that kind of marketing BS.

Outside of Lock, Stock I don't think I've particularly enjoyed any Ritchie movies. They're over stylized for no reason other than to be over stylized. So I doubt I'll much like this one either. Not a big Hunam fan either. He'll always be Lloyd from Undeclared to me, and it's hard to take him seriously in the tough guy roles he's done since, even in Sons. I do like Law though and think Elba is one of the best actors working today (OT, but I thought he should have replaced Bale as Batman. Maybe he'll get his shot if/when Affleck drops out).

Unless it gets a great rotten tomatoes score I'll likely be leaving this one for netflix.

Fingers crossed though, you never know when you'll be surprised with a fantastic film.

Edit: First Knight is a guilty pleasure of mine. An objectively bad movie, but I was at the right age when it came out for it to wow me. Especially with Julia Ormand as Guinevere and Sean Connery as Arthur.

Along with Mary Stewart's works, Jack Whytes series (up until he switches focus to his Lancelot character) is a great modern literary interpretation.

 

I've heard about Mary Stewart, but never read her stuff. It sounds like I might have to check them out.

 

It's great. There are four books in total. The first three are a trilogy following the life of Merlin. The first of the trilogy is one of my favourite novels.

She wrote the fourth novel as an attempt to correct what she saw as a mistake on her part in the original trilogy - making Mordred the villian. Instead, with The Wicked Day, she turns Mordred into a tragic character, his and Arthur's fates a terrible accident.

The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchanter

The Wicked Day

Edit, instead of a new post:

It's Amr who is Arthurs son who betrays him in the Welsh cycle, right? As part of Cai's rebellion after Cai got sick of Arthur's shit at a banquet?

Then I think Amhran is the son who dies fighting the boar (supposedly representing some kind of oppression, either man made like a Saxon invasion or natural like a disease) and Lachlan is the hero son who - crap, how does he die? Does Arthur kill him too?

I'd say to google! but I really should be going to sleep.... I think the above is right, feel free to correct me anybody. It's been quite awhile.

 

Agreed, though I have to admit I kinda like the film as a fun action romp (which has nothing to do with Arthurian legend).

 

What Elba are you referring to?

 

I

Sure. It's a fine historical action movie.

Have you watched some of the special features? Franzoni admits he wrote the script based on an unfinished grad paper someone left on a library table, and that's where the whole "truth behind the legend" thing came from.

 

Idris. He's Merlin in Guy Ritchie's series, isn't he?