Guy Ritchie is a director with a very particular sense of style – blistering action sequences, larger-than-life characters, a relentless sense of pace – but you can’t say the filmmaker doesn’t stray beyond his comfort zone.
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword, for instance, is a dark, fantastical reboot of the Arthurian legend that casts Charlie Hunnam as the street-smart king – and that’s before you even factor in the director’s planned dalliance with live-action fairytales via Disney’s Aladdin movie. Raised in a brothel from an early age, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur is clearly cut from a very specific cloth, and though Warner Bros. has seemingly drawn up plans for a full-blown universe – one that places Legend of the Sword at its core – the studio may well be bracing for 2017’s first major box office bomb.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, it’s understood King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword is tracking for a soft $25 million opening at the domestic box office, and is set to be swept aside by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Now entering its second week, James Gunn’s galactic sequel is expected to collect $60 million on home turf, which would take its worldwide total close to $500 million. Other films also pegged for release include Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s Snatched, which is out to capitalize on the Mother’s Day weekend.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, also starring Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, Jude Law and Eric Bana, is due to arrive in U.S. theaters on May 12th. The critical consensus deemed Guy Ritchie’s dark reimagining to be a bold, yet brainless reimagining of the medieval fable, which will surely drive a lance through Warner’s plans for a cinematic franchise – providing Legend of the Sword doesn’t do gangbusters overseas, that is.
