Eric Bana Joins Guy Ritchie's KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE

Snatch and Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie has an incredibly ambitious plan to make a six-film saga based on the legend of King Arthur, and another cast member has fallen into place.

Variety reports that Eric Bana has been cast as Uthur Penndragon, Arthur's father, in the upcoming movie. He joins a cast that already includes Charlie Hunnam as Arthur, Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Guinevere, and Jude Law as the film's villain. This is a project Warner Bros. has been trying to get made for years now, and with a release date already scheduled for next year, I imagine we'll start hearing about the rest of the cast fairly quickly.

Bana is a fine actor, but I'm still baffled at the hubris it takes to think you can launch a six-film franchise without building it up properly first. But since interconnected universes and Marvel-style world-building seems to be what every Hollywood studio is chasing right now, I suppose it makes sense that someone would give this a shot. If they want to turn something into a six-movie story, fine - but don't you think WB should have kept those plans quiet? That way, if the first one bombs, they won't look quite as stupid as they would have otherwise. Anyway, we'll see how the first film turns out on July 22nd, 2016.