Anthony Hopkins As An Evil Sorcerer!!

Merrick here...
Anthony Hopkins looks to be joining Chuck Russell's ARABIAN NIGHTS, alongside Liam Hemsworth. This'll mark Russell's first directorial foray to the big screen since THE SCORPION KING back in 2002 (although he was a producer on Michael Mann's COLLATERAL in 2004).

Written by Russell and Barry P. Ambrose, the period epic centers on a young commander (Liam Hemsworth) who, after his king is murdered in a coup, joins forces with Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Genie from the magic lamp to rescue the queen, Scheherazade. Hopkins will play Pharotu, an evil sorcerer who killed Sinbad’s love, a mermaid, and is looking to amass more magic for himself.

..says THR HERE. The Scheherezade character has spawned several similarly-themed plot lines, including a 1942 iteration of ARABIAN NIGHTS (HERE), and a shitty Halmi TV thing called ARABIAN NIGHTS (HERE). Rimsky-Korsakov's SCHEHERAZADE suite also touched on some of the same material - 'tis one of my most favorite pieces of music (try it out - starting about 36 seconds into the clip below)... Wonder if Chuck & Co. will use this music in any way in their new movie? Hopefully it'll be done smartly...
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