Last year saw a slew of bad epic films, from the bitter King Arthur which tried to portray the real tale of Arthur rather than the legend, to Oliver Stone’s Alexander which strung together a bunch of Patton-inspired monologues but had no heart. Both films drew fire from critics, and now they’re under fire from renowned producer Dino De Laurentiis, who had held off on his version of Alexander the Great out of respect to Stone.
In the latest “Screen International” (online at www.screendaily.com), De Laurentiis re-affirms his Alexander the Great project and says the film, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will be filmed in one year’s time. It would certainly be nice to see a decent version of Alexander’s story told rather than Stone’s, of which De Laurentiis says, “...his picture was certainly flawed, and was missing the spine of a screenplay.” Personally I don’t know if Luhrmann and DiCaprio are the right team to tell this story either, but I’m happy to see they’ll take the chance now. I thought it was a good move for De Laurentiis to bow out rather than have a market saturated by Alexander movies, but if Stone’s film leaves something to be desired, all power to De Laurentiis for trying to fill that desire.
But that’s not all. De Laurentiis adds, “Epic films are difficult to do well. King Arthur was also flawed. It badly copied ideas from the third film in my schedule, which is based on Valerio Massimo Manfredi's novel, The Last Legion." That project, which is currently without a director, is set during the fall of the Roman Empire, like King Arthur. It tells the story of a group of legionaries on a mission to save the kidnapped emperor of Rome. There’s no telling if one of them is named Arthur.
Among De Laurentiis’s other future projects is The Lecter Variation (also known as Behind the Mask) which will follow sociopath Hannibal Lecter during his youth. Although Anthony Hopkins was able to go younger for Red Dragon, it’s unlikely the man can play Lecter at age eight (although if anyone could do it, Hopkins is the man). Peter Webber (Girl With a Pearl Earring) will direct.
