via press release:
Principal photography Is Now Underway on
‘CAMELOT’
A Stunning International Cast Has Gathered in Ireland to Shoot
The Romantic Adventure Series Inspired by the King Arthur Legend
Starz to Air the Series in First Half of 2011
Bray, Ireland – July 21, 2010 – Principal photography has begun at Ardmore Studios in Ireland on the new romantic adventure series “Camelot,” a fresh telling of the classic King Arthur legend. The cast of this timeless and powerful tale is led by Jamie Campbell Bower (New Moon and upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) as King Arthur, Joseph Fiennes (Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love) as Merlin, Eva Green (Casino Royale) as Morgan, Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black, The Rock) as Arthur’s mother Queen Igraine, Tamsin Egerton (Keeping Mum, St. Trinian’s and “The Mists of Avalon”) as Guinevere and Peter Mooney (“Falcon Beach,” “ZOS: Zone of Separation”) as Arthur’s brother Kay. Filming is set to continue until December on this Irish-Canadian co-production. “Camelot” is tentatively scheduled to premiere next spring on Starz in the U.S and the CBC in Canada.
The cast also includes Philip Winchester (“Crusoe”) as Leontes, Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others) as King Uther and James Purefoy (“Rome”) as King Lot.
“Camelot” will be based on the wealth of literature about King Arthur, but those will only provide a starting point. “Camelot” will weave historical authenticity into a telling of the Arthur legends that is relatable to contemporary audiences.
Chris Chibnall (”Life on Mars,” “Torchwood”) is showrunner and writer on the Irish-Canadian coproduction, which was engineered by Executive Producers Morgan O’Sullivan of Octagon in Ireland and John Weber of Take 5 Productions in Canada. Other executive producers on the project are Oscar®-winner Graham King and Tim Headington of GK Films and Craig Cegielski of GK-TV, James Flynn of Octagon, Douglas Rae of UK’s Ecosse Films, as well as Fred Fuchs, Michael Hirst and Anne Thomopoulos.
Principal photography is taking place in Ireland, with post-production and visual effects to be completed in Toronto, Canada. Starz has all U.S. rights – including home entertainment and digital distribution – to “Camelot”; GK-TV, a GK Films company, will handle the rest of the world, excluding Canada, where it is being distributed by Take 5 Productions.
About Starz Entertainment
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 16 premium channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.1 million and 31.1 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its Starz, Encore and MoviePlex brands. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Starz (NASDAQ: LSTZA), a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.
About GK Films
Graham King launched his independent production company GK Films in May 2007 with business partner Tim Headington. The company is in post production on The Tourist, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp and recently began shooting Hugo Cabret, directed by Martin Scorsese. GK Films also recently completed shooting The Rum Diary starring Johnny Depp, which is also produced by Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil and the crime drama London Boulevard starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley, and written and directed by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter William Monahan. In addition, GK Films produced The Town written and directed by Ben Affleck set to be released by Warner Bros. in September 2010 and the animated tale Rango directed by Gore Verbinski and produced with his Blind Wink Productions for Paramount Pictures for a March 2011 release. Recent GK Films releases include Edge of Darkness and the three-time Academy Award® nominated The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt. Most recently Graham King and Tim Headington launched a new division of GK Films, GK-TV. Run by President Craig Cegielski, GK-TV is dedicated to the development, production and worldwide distribution of television programming.
“Camelot” will be based on the wealth of literature about King Arthur, but those will only provide a starting point. “Camelot” will weave historical authenticity into a telling of the Arthur legends that is relatable to contemporary audiences.”
First, there is “no wealth of literature about King Arthur. . .at least that is contemporary to his times. If he existed at all it was – after all – in the Dark Ages. Most of the “historical data” on Arthur and Camelot was written from passed on minstral legands and song hundreds of years after he presumably existed.
Second) What does the 2nd sentence of the copied paragraph above mean anyhow?
– “Camelot” will weave historical authenticity into a telling of the Arthur legends that is relatable to contemporary audiences.”
Does it say “We are going to attempt to loosely follow the old stories while making sure that it is in line with politically correct expectations of more recent times.”
In other words, will women, gays, and minorities be shown to be far more significantly relevant in that historical time in order to meet modern P.C. standards.
Oops, Meant to say 5th century A.D. in above post.
When a show promises historical accuracy but clearly changes the character’s beliefs to mirror the “political correct” attitude of 2010, the show shouldn’t say this is a historically correct drama.
I understand there must be changes to the story so that people can understand and relate to them. For example, I have no problems changing the speaking style of the characters to reflect the way 21st century Britons speak. I have difficulties reading the original Shakespearian plays. I can understand the characters speaking in the television show “Merlin.”
The writers of “Camelot” are free to do whatever they want because this story is fictional but I don’t want the public relations people to claim this is a historically accurate drama.
hey, I'm in Ireland for another week still, maybe I should go find them
Another show for me to try out, wonder if Camelot will do as “well” as Spartacus has done. Also excited to watch Pillars of Earth well at least try it out.
Does anyone know if Camelot is a mini-series or an ongoing series? I've read conflicting reports.
38 year old Claire Forlani as King Arthur's mother? How old is Arthur? 10?
Related noted – Do pay networks have to play the same (stupid) 18-49 game as non-pay networks? If so, why? They don't have advertising to sell and older cohorts have more $…