Justin Chadwick has a tall tale to Tell.
The British director, whose last film was The Other Boleyn Girl, is staying period for his next, Ironbow: The Legend Of William Tell, which – strangely enough – will be the first major English-language film about the legendary Swiss rebel.
Most people know of Tell – who may or may not have lived in the 14th century (there are some that dispute he existed at all) – as the ace archer who shot an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow at the behest of an Austrian tyrant who ruled over his lands.
But he was also the leader of a rebellion against that same tyrant, Hermann Gessler, that led to the establishment of the Swiss Confederation.
It’s a tale that has it all – derring-do, crossbows, healthy fruit. So it’s a surprise that Hollywood has largely turned its nose up at Tell’s story. There have been a couple of TV shows – the British The Adventures Of William Tell, and Crossbow – but no major films.
Until now, of course. Spyglass is bankrolling the movie, with Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman producing, while Jay Wolpert will write the script. Wolpert has previous in this area – he wrote Kevin Reynolds’ decent adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo a couple of years back.
It’ll be a while, though, before we hear Tell of this movie, but one thing: don’t expect to hear Rossini’s famous piece of music, The William Tell Overture – rather confusingly, that has become best-known as the theme tune of The Lone Ranger, and is more likely to crop up on that character’s Disney blockbuster, due around 2010 or so.