Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Three Musketeers all had to go through this weird revisionist reinterpretation that no one bought into. I strongly dislike Ridley Scott's Robin Hood but at least that felt like it took place in medieval times.
shareIt probably has to do with feeling like something new has to be done with the story in order to justify a new telling. I'm sure the thinking goes that if you tell the same story the same way every time, people eventually won't be interested in anymore.
With that said, however, it seems like it's been so long since we got a traditional telling of King Arthur or Robin Hood that we are due.
The last good Arthur movie was Merlin from the late 90s (actually a mini-series, but it's also been released as a single film), and it was a faithful adaptation. The last good Robin Hood movie was Prince of Thieves in 1991, and it also was a traditional telling of the tale.
Why can't you just see the Errol Flynn version? Why must a new version be made?
shareBy that logic, the MCU should had stalled by Phase 2. But I get what you're driving at.
shareWell, personally I think the bottom is eventually going to fall out on the superhero boom. But I think what is really keeping it going is the world-building and the escapist element of the stories.
Back on topic though, I think I've okay with new versions of these classic tales every 15 or 20 years or so.
One of my favorite stories is A Christmas Carol, and there's been a new major adaptation every 10 to 20 years since the 30s. '38, '51, '70, '84, '99, '09. These were all faithful adaptations that tell the story in the classic way.
Could a similar timetable and approach be used to re-tell stories like Robin Hood and King Arthur? Good question.
On one hand, it's true what others have said before, that both Robin Hood and King Arthur have proven to be shaky prospects in terms of box office performance. But on the other hand, one does have to wonder how much of that is due to the fact that the stories have not been told faithfully and classically in a long time.
The last good Robin Hood movie was from 1991 and it was a traditional telling of the tale. But it wasnt the Prince of Thieves one, but the British one, from the same year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(1991_British_film)
Yes, it is too hard to play classic adventure stories like this straight anymore.
shareOn film it seems. Even though they're not technically swashbucklers, Black Sails and Da Vinci's Demons play up the historical adventure/fantasy element completely straight and are both excellent dramas.
shareWell... to me, "classic adventure" tends to be more general audiences-friendly, whereas the shows you cite are geared toward adult audiences, with more sexual content and graphic violence. So to me, such shows are revisionist in the way they increase the "grittiness" factor for today's viewers, and are therefore not playing the story straight anymore.
shareThey don't seem to know how to tell a story in a purely dramatic fashion. Instead, it's geared to towards consumer demographics, how much a film "fits" the current cultural and stylistic cliches or how much can they used CGI to give it the "right look". Early movie tellings of the story had a handle on drama and character development. Also, there were several weaknesses in the structure of the script in this film.
share