Bad news for the ‘already booked to do Thor’ Kenneth Branagh, but good news for red blooded, beef-eating English gentlemen everywhere, as Elizabeth writer Michael Hirst announces his latest trip into the barbarous depths of British history. The Tudors creator has signed on to adapt Bernard Cornwall’s epic tale of the Battle of Agincourt, a key moment in the hundred years war and one of the bloodiest battles in medieval history.
Rather than the traditional Shakespearian take, this version sees events through the eyes of a regular Joe – Longbowman Nicholas Hook – and deals with the interception of Henry V’s forces by a huge French army and their eventual seeing off thanks to a combination of superior firepower and English pluck.
Cameras are set to roll in early 2011, but with a budget of just $35 million, we may be looking at high-scale TV production rather than blockbuster epic, so expect lots of physical effects (ketchup) and legions of massed Brit-thesps taking time out from Harry Potter reshoots to don fake chainmail and smack their French counterparts about the head.
3 Comments
I see you straining like them there greyhounds.
Dishonour not your Watch With Mothers eh?
I like the bit in Henry V where they hang Richard Briars.