There is a knight that never goes out: Why is Hollywood so obsessed with King Arthur?

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. And, sure, the other attempts to pluck it have failed but maybe if this time it had more sex or more grit or more … well, right or wrong, Hollywood thinks it’s easy pickings.” open image in gallery Charlie Hunnam as King Arthur in Guy Ritchie’s ignominious 2017 adaptation ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ To its credit, Cursed features a charismatic performance from Langford as the plucky Nimue. “The lines he loved to hear were: ‘Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot’.” As the idealistic Sixties gave way to the murk and cynicism of the Seventies, however, audiences got a more appropriate King Arthur. “We loved medieval epics.” But if there was one blinding bright moment for Arthurian movies – a Camelot among Camelots – it is surely John Boorman’s 1981 tour de force Excalibur. “At the same time, that success is a double-edged sword: the surge of “medieval” books, shows, movies, and video games that Game of Thrones left in its wake has compounded the difficulty of any one of them capturing an audience.” open image in gallery Katherine Langford as Nimue, the mythical Lady of the Lake, in Netflix’s ‘Cursed’ “I think cinema-goers have been cool on Arthur recently because the movies simply haven’t been very good,” adds historical fiction author Steven A McKay.