Ritchie's King Arthur Now on Video

Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was released to home video this past week. Here are the images from the Blu-ray sleeve showing the cover and extras.

 

MAPACA Roundtable Update

I am pleased to announce the panelists for our roundtable on recent Arthuriana on screen. Registration information for the conference can be found at https://mapaca.net/conference. Hope to see you there.

New Visits to Camelot: Reflecting on the Contemporary Matter of Britain on Screen (Roundtable)

Session sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture for the Medieval & Renaissance Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association

Organizer/Presider: Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Guy Ritchie and Michael Bay (Oh My): The Challenges of Contemporary Visions of Camelot on Screen

Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar) 

Michael A. Torregrossa is a medievalist whose research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, monsters, and wizards. His founder of both The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and serves as Fantastic Area Chair for the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association.

Othering Pagan Archetypes: Reimaginings of Merlin and Morgan le Fay

Rachael Warmington (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Rachael Warmington is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in English from Montclair State University, M.A. in English from Seton Hall University, and her MFA at City College of New York, City University of New York. Rachael is also the editor-in-chief of the open source academic journal, Wachung Review. She is currently focusing on the ways in which early regional and generational variations of Arthurian legend influence contemporary literary, film and television adaptations and appropriations of Arthurian works.

Round Table Revival: The Order: 1886

Carl Sell (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Carl Sell is PhD student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in all things medieval and Early Modern, and his studies focus on the Arthurian Legend and modern adaptations of the legend as well as adaptations of Robin Hood.

 

CFP ISSM Roundtable on Ritchie's King Arthur (9/1/2017; Kalamazoo 2018)

Wishing them luck:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism (ISSM) is now seeking papers for three sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 10-13, 2018. Please see our calls for papers below for details. For more information about the conference itself, please visit the Congress website.

http://medievalism.net/conference/issm-at-kalamazoo



King Arthur 2017: A Round Table

Reviews have poured in for Guy Ritchie’s 2017 King Arthur, and some of them are pretty scathing. Chief among audience complaints is the film’s lack of authenticity: the story deviates so radically from medieval literature that Arthurian legend is barely recognizable. However, authenticity has always been a problematic way to evaluate Arthurian retellings. Sometimes called the “original fan-fiction,” medieval Arthurian legend is always revised and recreated to fit the political or cultural needs of a given period. And in fact, Ritchie’s film has been much better received among scholars of the Middle Ages. Participants in this round table will discuss the 2017 cinematic King Arthur and might answer some of the following questions: How do Ritchie’s changes fit into the canon of Arthurian revisions? How does the 2017 film inform meta-theoretical questions of authenticity surrounding Arthur himself? What do Ritchie’s changes tell us about our own cultural moment? Please send abstracts for papers of no more than ten minutes to Amy S. Kaufman (skaufmana at gmail) by September 1, 2017.

Hellboy Film Update 8/6/17

A recent report on IGN notes that the upcoming Hellboy film has dropped its subtitle "Rise of the Blood Queen" and will be titled just Hellboy. Details at http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/02/hellboy-reboot-casts-ian-mcshane-as-adoptive-father-professor-broom. No word on how this affects the plot.

In related news, creator Mike Mignola comments allusively on his role in transitioning the comic to film in an interview on The Verge. The full text can be accessed at https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16089200/mike-mignola-hellboy-universe-film-reboot-you-know-comics-interview. He refers a few times to the story chosen by the filmmakers but offers no specific details.