King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Seriously why is it so hard to just remake Excalibur, best Arthur movie of all time. I love Ritchie, and thought this was ok, but his decision to barely follow the Arthur legend was stupid.

Where was the marketing for this film? I saw one trailer for it, attached to Guardians. Was not even a one-sheet or standee in the lobby at any point and we go to the movies nearly every week during the winter months. I don't know if they completely flubbed the marketing, realized it was a clunker and didn't want to sink additional cash into it, or if they did have a campaign but it was focused in a different medium / demographic.

I've seen tons of ads for it on MLB network, FS1, FX, AMC, and Discovery.

Yeah I saw TV spots for it all of the time, but then I do spend a lot of time of FX and AMC.

Soygen said:

I bet Charlie Hunnam is wishing he didn't turn down 50 Shades of Gray now.

Click to expand...

You think he has regrets, what about Disney? They picked Guy Ritchie to direct their live-action Aladdin remake.

Marketing definitely was non-existent for this, I actually had been looking forward to it and had no fucking idea it was out. Now I have to find time to see it before it gets pulled for underperforming.

I saw a ton of tv spots for this. I must watch too much Discovery, FX, and FS1

King Archibald and his rap(e)ier your wallet. And failed at it, based on earnings.
Felt like a dumb/ridiculous chinese fantasy movie directed by a white guy. Forget what you know about Arthur, Excalibur, Merlin, etc. if you are gonna watch this.

Love king Arthur stuff, but this went overboard into the fantasy realm. Felt like I was watching a higher production value of dungeons and dragons, disappointing.

Comicbookgirl19 said very well.. if you have the IP for king arthur, why are you so clearly straying from the source? the people who are into king arthur are going to be pissed that it's nothing to do with arthurian legend, and the people who don't care about arthurian legend aren't going to get drawn in by the title.

Araysar said:

This is hilarious because no one even cares that much about Arthurian legend and I doubt there's a movie's worth of material, let alone 7. Shit, this isn't Harry Potter

Good job, @Screamfeeder

Click to expand...

Touche. I love Arthurian stuff. I just hate shitty movies portraying it.

Isn't Hunnam the dude who turned down Pacific Rim 2 because he was too good for those roles now?

Also official Scream response. Hollywood nor studio cares about the 1/4 of a billion loss after marketing fees. The data provided is more useful than the money.

j00t said:

Comicbookgirl19 said very well.. if you have the IP for king arthur, why are you so clearly straying from the source?

Click to expand...

That's a question posed on a false premise. There is no single King Arthur IP. It's in the public domain even though there are iterations of the story to which there are exclusive rights. Excalibur is one and WB tried to get the rights to it for a remake but failed. The IP they ended up acquiring was a spec script based on a contemporary retelling of the story focused on Arthur and Lancelot. They brought Guy Ritchie in because they thought he'd be a good fit for putting that sort of spin on it.

And I can see why they would want to try something different, just not this particular something. The last crack at a more grounded retelling of the story was the one Disney did a while back and they probably just broke even on it.

Olebass said:

Touche. I love Arthurian stuff. I just hate shitty movies portraying it.

Click to expand...

uh yeah, same. i LOVE arthurian legend. i grew up on that stuff. it sucks that there are PLENTY of authors that do a great job with the material but movies just fall apart.

grumblethorn said:

Well to be fair it's not like that franchise wont clock in around 1.2 billion regardless of the director.

Click to expand...

I don't know if that's necessarily true. One thing they can't do with Aladdin (that they can do and are doing with The Lion King remake) is bring back the iconic voice actor from the original. And Robin Williams owns that role in the minds of fans even more so than JEJ owns Mufasa. And everyone knows this going in. It's going to be a challenge to find someone who can endear themselves to the audience on that scale a second time around.

Royal said:

It's going to be a challenge to find someone who can endear themselves to the audience on that scale a second time around.

Click to expand...

Easy, they'll make the genie a woman or make him black like on Broadway. And if you don't fully embrace them, you'll face the wrath.

Drakain said:

Easy, they'll make the genie a woman or make him black like on Broadway. And if you don't fully embrace them, you'll face the wrath.

Click to expand...

I'm not talking about the response of film critics. I'm talking about how average fans and moviegoers respond to someone else trying to voice that role when they start running trailers for it. The wrath can do some things, it can't turn out an audience that doesn't want what you're selling.

And I think Will Smith's name has been dropped as a potential for the role already.