Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur delayed until 2017
Warner Bros. has announced some changes to their release calendar, confirming that Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie has moved from its July 22, 2016 release date to February 17, 2017. The film was set to face 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: Collision Course and Paramount Pictures’ Star Trek Beyond on its original date but will now go head-to-head with 20th Century Fox’s Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Sony’s Bad Boys III.
“I think where the pitfall has often been is trying to make King Arthur bland and nice, and nice and bland,” director Guy Ritchie previously told EW. “The two qualities make rather compatible bed companions. Unfortunately, they’re not interesting to watch. Luke Skywalker was always the most uninteresting character in Star Wars because he’s the good guy. Good guys are boring.”
“He’s a little bit rough around the edges, but he’s basically a survivor. He’s a hustler,” Hunnam said of his version of the character. “He’s a street kid. There’s definitely a harder edge to him than people would imagine. It’s sort of classic Guy Ritchie stuff.”
Ambitiously planned to potentially span six films, King Arthur will offer a re-imagining of Arthurian legend. Believed to have been a 6th century King, Arthur defended Britain against Saxon invaders. The key source material for the film will be Thomas Mallory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur,” published in 1485 as a compilation of French and English tales.
Also starring Astrid Berges-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Jude Law (Spy, Sherlock Holmes), Eric Bana, and Djimon Honsou, King Arthur was written by Joby Harold, who is producing with Akiva Goldsman, Tory Tunnell and Ritchie himself. Cate Adams and Niija Kuykendall are overseeing for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow.
