Guy Ritchie's forgettable King Arthur: Legend of the Sword starring Charlie Hunnam wasn't originally the plan for the medieval, mythological figure as director David Dobkin was once in charge of bringing him back to the big screen. His version starred Game of Thrones's Kit Harington as King Arthur, and Suicide Squad star Joel Kinnaman as Sir Lancelot.
In an interview with Collider, Dobkin detailed why his King Arthur film didn't happen, and it appears studio execs were uncertain they could sell a version with those two lead stars.
"After I showed the screen tests of Joel and Kit together, we got greenlit, and a day later, the international department who saw the screen test kind of came in and were like, 'We don’t think we can sell the movie with these two guys,'" Dobkin said. "And the pressure got harder and harder, we had already scouted Hungary. We were greenlit and on our way to making the movie. "
"I had a DP, Philippe Rousselot was shooting the movie. There was a production designer. Everything was up and running, and then international Warner Brothers put the brakes on the movie, and they told me we had to recast." Dobkin moved on to other projects, and by the time he returned, "Joby Harold had written a new version of the movie very different from my script, completely different, but with a lot of the same premise." Unfortunately, that didn't interest him.
The filmmaker was also insistent on the story playing out over a trilogy, and it seems the studio balked at such a big commitment, especially with what they perceived to be two unproven stars. The version that was ultimately made starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, and Eric Bana and grossed only $146.2 million worldwide on a budget of $175 million.
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