One movie from Walt Disney’s final years that doesn’t get that much love is THE SWORD IN THE STONE. The animated story about King Arthur and Merlin came out right in between ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS and THE JUNGLE BOOK, and was the last film Walt personally saw through to its release, yet rarely does it get mentioned in the same breath as those universally beloved classics.
But that doesn’t protect it from the all-seeing eye of the wandering remake demon.
Disney wants to spruce SWORD IN THE STONE up for live-action, and have asked GAME OF THRONES writer-producer Bryan Cogman to draft the script.
Cogman started out in the writers’ room at GOT, serving as a story editor and writing a handful of episodes himself, and eventually worked his way up to co-producer and then full producer status. He’s been nominated for four WGA awards for his efforts over there. Getting him to write a movie about King Arthur seems mighty obvious, save for the fact that Disney’s obviously aiming a lot younger than the bulk of GOT’s fanbase.
Don’t forget, there’s also that Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie coming out, which promises to have its own 7-film series. And make no mistake, that’s the endgame here as well; SWORD IN THE STONE is based on The Once And Future King by T.H. White, which has three parts that follow STONE. You didn’t think this would just be a hit-it-and-quit-it scenario, did you? In this day and age?
I prefer my Arthurian legends told with EXCALIBUR-levels of violence, Wagner, and Helen Mirren nudity, but I’ll have to go back and watch SWORD IN THE STONE to see if Walt & crew set a decent template for this thing. Getting writers with experience in grown-up fantasy’s a good way to go about making this flick seem legit and contemporary in an era where THRONES is one of the biggest things on television.
Now, let’s see how much incestous rape, genital mutilation, and dragon-torchings he can squeeze in there.
