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Guy Ritchie recently tweeted a picture of himself and Charlie Hunnam on the first day of shooting Knights Of The Round Table, which Warner Bros is supposedly planning to build into a six-film franchise. Which is sort of like planning to become Domino’s before you’ve cut your first pepperoni, but hey, stranger things have happened.
Quoth the press release:
The bold new story introduces a streetwise young Arthur who runs the back alleys of Londonium with his gang, unaware of the life he was born for until he grasps hold of the sword Excalibur—and with it, his future. Instantly challenged by the power of Excalibur, Arthur is forced to make some hard choices. Throwing in with the Resistance and a mysterious young woman named Guinevere, he must learn to master the sword, face down his demons and unite the people to defeat the tyrant Vortigern, who stole his crown and murdered his parents, and become King.
Wait, were there street gangs in the sixth century? What our movie presupposes is, “Sure, why not.” I do like the idea of young King Arthur walking around flicking a boar tusk like a switchblade, until some watery tart in a lake lobs a sword at him and he decides he should be king. “Oi, some day, boys. Some day oy’s gonna be one a dem conts wiv da crown. Oy’s gonna be one a dem conts oo ‘asn’t go sh*t all over ‘im.”
Basically, I envision this as a Monty Python And The Holy Grail prequel starring The Stath.
Starring with Hunnam is Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as Guinevere; Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou as Resistance leader Bedivere; Aidan Gillen as Goosefat Bill; Oscar nominee Jude Law as Vortigern; and Eric Bana as Arthur’s father, King Uther Pendragon.
The film is set to open July 22nd, 2016, with Ritchie directing a script by Joby Harold.
Ritchie began his career as a sort of British Tarantino, then became some sort of mega-budget director for hire after two Sherlock Holmes films (budgeted at $90 and $125 million) and the recently completed Man From U.N.C.L.E. At this point I don’t really know what to expect from him. But Ritchie aside, just typing “a six-film franchise about a streetwise King Arthur” gives me a strange dripping sensation in the back of my throat and the urge to drive a tinted Mercedes.
I’m hoping that at least the knights will be able to do an English accent in this one, unlike Richard Gere in First Knight, who just flat out refused to even try. Ironically they hired the king of convoluted accents, Charlie Hunnam, who seems to speak in some kind of strange amalgamation of cockney, Australian, and outdated New Yorkese from The Outsiders.