King Antoine

Watch out. See to the safety of your local legends and guard your native mythology with a keener eye for some Americans are about and they're after the most English of English stories, the tale of King Arthur and his motley crew of the Round Table. Jerry Bruckheimer's long-planned biopic King Arthur has finally bagged itself a director in the shape of Training Day helmer Antoine Fuqua, a chappie who'll certainly not be afraid to inject his hard-hitting, music-video trained style into shaking up a few medieval types when the film goes into production next Spring. Originally slated for his Pearl Harbor buddy, director Michael Bay before Bay took on Bad Boys 2, the project has been described by the uber-producer Bruckheimer as a demystifying take on the tale of Arthur that should provide us with a more realistic portrayal of the king than has ever been presented onscreen. Instead of the usual Excalibur shenanigans and the old pulling the sword out of a stone trick, apparently we should expect to focus on the history and politics of Arthur's time when the Roman Empire had all but disappeared from the map and subsequent skirmishes over power broke out all over the European shop. Don't worry too much, however. This being Bruckheimer an' all, there'll be a few eye-popping explosions stuck in there too. With Spielberg producing an Arthurian TV mini-series along the lines of Band of Brothers for 2003 and this warts-and-all depiction of the Knights of English legend, our indigenous heroes are obviously no longer safe from brutal, revisionist treatments at the hands of Hollywood. The Royal Family must be quaking in their regal boots.