Bryan Singer to Produce and Possibly Direct Excalibur Remake

Posted by on August 21st, 2009   Filed under: Fantasy, Remakes
Source: Variety

excaliburremake

One week after Bryan Singer was named as a director for an upcoming Battlestar Galactica reboot, it seems he has also signed on to develop yet another remake: a redo of John Boorman’s 1981 fantasy film Excalibur. According to Variety, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures have just acquired the rights to make the project a reality. Singer will serve as a producer initially, with the possibility of coming on board as director later in the process.

So why exactly does Excalibur deserve a remake at this particular point in time? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, considering that you could just make a new King Arthur movie without calling it Excalibur. The story of King Arthur has been told countless times before, most recently in Antoine Fuqua’s 2004 movie King Arthur and the new BBC Series Merlin. There are also a couple of medieval comedies in development, one being Brian K. Vaughan’s Roundtable, and the other being David Gordon Green’s Your Highness. I don’t see this being in particularly high demand right now, but I’m guessing they’ll make it another green screen extravaganza in the vein of 300? Either way, it seems that Singer’s next project won’t be any of these remakes. Rather, it will be Jack the Giant Killer, a “riff on the Jack and the Beanstalk legend”. What do you think, are you dying for an Excalibur remake? What would you like Bryan Singer’s next project to be?



  • Hanoi_Xan

    If you want to make a film about knights, it should be no problem to come up with an original story. I don’t think there would be any impact on the boxoffice if it’s not based on King Arthur. Same thing with that Galactica movie. Why make the same story again and again… one successful remake for that material is enough in my opinion. I would much rather see something that is not based on any existing material.

  • Sly

    I look forward to new, fresh and original stories. Stop the remakes!

  • Damndirtyape

    >> So why exactly does Excalibur deserve a remake at this particular point in time?

    Deserve has nothing to do with it. It’s just that Hollywood is looking under every rock for existing properties to gut, and Excalibur’s number has finally come up.

    I’m still waiting for “Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared-Syn” to pop up in the remake que.

  • BigHungry

    I would like to see Bryan Singer spend more time on a new concept or if he is going to remake a movie at least pick a super old movie.

    12 angry men redone into 12 angry women.
    or even 12 angry Zombies

    All the remakes, sequels and reboots.. bla bla bla… from hollywood.
    This is why foreign films are gaining ground in my movie watching.

  • diddleymaz

    Excalibur is really good, captures the mystic and ageless Tennyson epic poetry. Id LOVE to see a remake!

  • jaime

    Hope this is as goood as Super-spiderman.

  • Reid

    I hope it never sees the light of day, frankly. I was 11 when Excalibur came out, and even as a kid I could tell it was something special. Time has been nothing but kind to the film–really, it could not be done better.