A couple of very good television series have resparked public interest in the Arthurian legend of yore, and Warner Bros. has won the right to make the next film from the ancient tale.
David Dobkin, who gave up writing for directing after his terrible debut screenplay Ice Cream Man, and has since directed such crap as Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus and the upcoming The Change-Up, has penned a new screenplay.
Now, either it’s very good, or it’s come at exactly the right time for its subject matter because it triggered a fierce bidding war, which Warner Bros. has won for $2 million – that’s a lot for a screenplay, especially from a hack like Dobkin.
The script, entitled Arthur and Lancelot will cover a new adaptation of the relationship between the young king and his greatest champion.
Likely, it will mostly revolve around Lancelot’s affair with Arthur’s queen, Guinevere, an action which, in the legends of history, always spark some dramatic confrontation, though, like all aspects of the legend, it has many different variations.
The most famous version is the one in which Arthur exiles Lancelot and sends Guinevere to a convent.
Do not be surprised if we see the other studios, who lost the bid for this script, commission Arthurian scripts of their own, as once studios see the value in something like this, they all want to get their own version of the story into the ring.
Though no production dates have been announced, Arthur and Lancelot will likely go quickly into pre-production, as a director – Dobkin himself, of course – and producers have already been found, and a budget, $90 million, has already been set.
