Bernard Cornwall's 'Agincourt' To Be Adapted

Christophe de Frisselle · Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:59 pm

by Elisabeth Rappe Jul 16th 2009 // 4:15PM

As many of you are undoubtedly aware, I'm a sucker for a good historical epic, especially if it's set in that darkest of ages. Though the medieval period is the subject of thousands of books, and everyone knows something about the Black Death or the 100 Years War, few movies ever tackle those history-shaking events. But we might be getting one according to Variety, who reports that London's Independent Film is bringing Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt to the big screen.

Rest of article here.

Previous discussion on the book...
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... =azincourt

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar · Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:08 am

Adapted by the chap what did The Tudors....... Ah well that's that buggered then.

Effingham · Post by **Effingham** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:37 am

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar wrote:Adapted by the chap what did The Tudors..

DAMMIT!!

Josh W · Post by **Josh W** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:26 am

How much do you want to bet that the longbow arrows will be represented as going through plate armour as if it were paper? All the way through the centers of breastplates, right up to the fletching every single time, I'll bet, and that tired old myth will be injected with new life and continue to plague students of history. :roll:

*sigh* I hate Hollywood...

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar · Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:46 am

and that hoary old lie about the two fingered salute will be up there too, and like RHPOT they'll take beautifully made yew bows and slap a coat of dark oak varnish on them....mutter mutter plastic flipping nocks....mutter mutter hessian mutter.....

Tascius · Post by **Tascius** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 4:20 pm

This film is going to be Awesome! Once you add the Benny Hill music.

Klaus the Red · Post by **Klaus the Red** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:41 pm

Maybe they'll do it in 16th century armor, like the book cover.

Adriano · Post by **Adriano** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:47 pm

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar wrote:Adapted by the chap what did The Tudors....... Ah well that's that buggered then.

And Elizabeth. Effin' lovely.

Why is actual history never good enough?

Lienhart Fischer · Post by **Lienhart Fischer** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:20 pm

tudors bleh
at least there won't be a shortage of boobs to look at

James B. · Post by **James B.** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:39 pm

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar wrote:Adapted by the chap what did The Tudors....... Ah well that's that buggered then.

Full of fail!

Klaus the Red · Post by **Klaus the Red** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:47 pm

Please, we're armor snobs. That's spelled "faille."

ARMOURER ERIC · Post by **ARMOURER ERIC** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:39 pm

One of the background stunt rider groups fdrom the Tudors gets all their stuff from me, maybe it will mean some business. I still remember the costume person approaching me in person for 3 sets of full arms with articulated joins, but the rearbrace and vams needed to be black leather with 1/8" solid brass splints for "that period heroic look"

iaenmor · Post by **iaenmor** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:19 pm

Hey the were only off a century or so. And a couple of countries too far west but who would know the difference.

Effingham · Post by **Effingham** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:02 am

Klaus the Red wrote:Please, we're armor snobs. That's spelled "faille."

ARMOURER ERIC wrote:One of the background stunt rider groups fdrom the Tudors gets all their stuff from me, maybe it will mean some business. I still remember the costume person approaching me in person for 3 sets of full arms with articulated joins, but the rearbrace and vams needed to be black leather with 1/8" solid brass splints for "that period heroic look"

Jonathan Atkin · Post by **Jonathan Atkin** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:47 am

epic failure

Charlotte J · Post by **Charlotte J** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:50 am

From the article:

It won't be accurate, but it'll probably be a really good watch!

Christophe de Frisselle · Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:43 pm

So it will be like Excalibur.

Cap'n Atli · Post by **Cap'n Atli** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:58 pm

Oh, come on folks: with the Kevin (...wear your helm, idiot) Branaugh and Sir Laurence Olivier's productions as baselines, surely they will take advantage of all of the wonderful scholarship and CGI capabilities to produce the most gloriously accurate depiction of late medival warfare ever conceived. That and a good story line, driving narrative, and thrilling action should make this a classic of the ages.

I have to go eat the stainless steel peanubutter with the caterpiller and white rabbit now. Alice? Alice! You gotta try this one...

William of Otterton · Post by **William of Otterton** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:21 pm

Christophe de Frisselle wrote:So it will be like Excalibur.

Hey... I liked Excalibur. It was Boorman's fault that I got into this whole SCA / medieval stuff in the first place.

Vitus von Atzinger · Post by **Vitus von Atzinger** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:47 pm

The arrows will be magical.

Klaus the Red · Post by **Klaus the Red** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:50 pm

And they'll all be flaming! And used only at night!

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:09 pm

" So it will be like Excalibur. "

No he said "rally good to watch"

this will be inaccurate and probly suck

I bet
1 of the principles will somehow be black
1 will be flamboyantly gay
they will put an invincible kung fu girl in it
:roll:

Tancred de Lanvellec · Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:15 pm

Griffin de Stockport wrote:
Christophe de Frisselle wrote:So it will be like Excalibur.

Hey... I liked Excalibur. It was Boorman's fault that I got into this whole SCA / medieval stuff in the first place.

I'm with you! Before Excalibur, I had Star Wars posters and stuff. After seeing that movie, they came down and up went the Howard Pyle posters! I bet many on the forum trace their "roots" to that flic.

Tanc

justus · Post by **justus** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:02 am

Josh W wrote:How much do you want to bet that the longbow arrows will be represented as going through plate armour as if it were paper? All the way through the centers of breastplates, right up to the fletching every single time, I'll bet, and that tired old myth will be injected with new life and continue to plague students of history.

*sigh* I hate Hollywood...

It depends, I didn't see the Turdors but from the general reaction it seems like the director is a halfwit.

But...

If he reads the book at all he will not propagate the magic arrow myth. Cornwell did a much better job in this book than he did in "The Archer's Tale" series. Those books really did have magic arrows and a magic archer to go with them. In "Agincourt" He is very specific and accurate about how effective arrows are against plate armor (not very) While he still has a magic archer (he is the hero after all) even the magic archers arrows from his extra heavy bow seldom penetrate plate and when they do it is always at close range and then at a weak point.

Nope in this book the arrows disable horses, and sometimes pierce plate at weak points, but the killing is done hand to hand, and with heavy weapons (he addresses the super-sword myth a couple times)

Thing he does get wrong, and they are many, tend to be related to fighting in armor and what can and cannot be done with the hand weapons of the period. He also has some very strange notions about crossbows... But arrow wise, I'd give him a 90-95% grade on accuracy.

All that said, I can't imagine any director (even a decent one) doing a very good job with "Agincourt" especially with Legolas and LoTR arrow storms fresh in their cinematic minds.

-Justus[/i]

Alan Frize · Post by **Alan Frize** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:23 pm

Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar wrote:and that hoary old lie about the two fingered salute will be up there too, and like RHPOT they'll take beautifully made yew bows and slap a coat of dark oak varnish on them....mutter mutter plastic flipping nocks....mutter mutter hessian mutter.....

And of course the archers will be blessed by a celtic priestess who willthen shout "Freeeeedoooommmmm".

I probably won't see that far into the film. It'll be like when I was thrown out of the screening of Braveheart for shouting "This is shite! Give me my money back!"

Jonathan Atkin · Post by **Jonathan Atkin** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:36 pm

all archers will be in maximillian armor and have 40 lbs cannons

Alan Frize · Post by **Alan Frize** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:19 pm

Jonathan Atkin wrote:all archers will be in maximillian armor and have 40 lbs cannons

And told to "Fire!"

Josh W · Post by **Josh W** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:50 pm

Seriously? Then color me pleasantly surprised. What a breath of fresh air. I may give it a chance after all, though I still hold out very little hope for accuracy in costuming...

justus wrote: If he reads the book at all he will not propagate the magic arrow myth. Cornwell did a much better job in this book than he did in "The Archer's Tale" series. Those books really did have magic arrows and a magic archer to go with them. In "Agincourt" He is very specific and accurate about how effective arrows are against plate armor (not very) While he still has a magic archer (he is the hero after all) even the magic archers arrows from his extra heavy bow seldom penetrate plate and when they do it is always at close range and then at a weak point.
[/i]