When the neurons were firing in my brain as I first heard about this scoop, I had to utter, “Wait… what?” Because because because… I thought it meant that Guy Ritchie was making a big screen movie adaptation of Warren Ellis' run on the mutant-title EXCALIBUR from the 90s. Anybody else remember that? Carlos Pacheco drew a lot of it and it introduced Pete Wisdom and Black Air and buzzcut-and-goatee-and-pirate-outfit Nightcrawler. Needless to say, that was Excalibur with attitude. However, this news is about the actual Athurian legend, and not the mutant title that so cleverly puns the “X” in X-MEN with the “X” in eXcalibur.
So, a while back, Ellis told Slashfilm he was writing a treatment about Britain’s once and future king…
‘Untitled Arthurian Project,’ as I call it (just so I can’t feel John Boorman’s EXCALIBUR looming down at me from my DVD shelf), differs from the prior 751 King Arthur movies in many ways, but perhaps most obviously in that it is very specifically about the gathering of the Knights.
Now, they’re saying that director Guy Ritchie and Hollywood Gang (the outfit that got the 300 movie together) are looking to move that treatment forward into a screenplay. Since Ritchie dropped out of making a Lobo movie, it’s looking like this could be his next film after the SHERLOCK HOLMES sequel he’s shooting this summer. There’s a bit of question of whether or not this is going to be a remake of the ’81 EXCALIBUR movie that starred Liam Neeson and, if that were the case, if it’s going to conflict with the plans of Bryan Singer (of X-MEN and SUPERMAN RETURNS, as you know) to remake the film, himself.
There’s also some mention of this being more of a STAR WARS-style take on the legend, so that might actually be a covert clue for this being an adaption of DC’s classic comic CAMELOT 3000. Remember that one, kids?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.