Starz continues to expand its portfolio of original programming, this time with a retelling of the legend of King Arthur. Camelot is scheduled to begin shooting in late June for a 10-episode series order. It’s slated to air in early 2011.
The network has just announced the main cast of Camelot, and it has a few names you might recognize. Joseph Fiennes stars as the wizard Merlin (and hey, was that was fast or what, right off the cancelation of FlashForward?), while Eva Green (Daniel Craig’s first “Bond girl,” Vesper Lynd) is his villainous foil, Morgana Le Fay. This marks Green’s first role for television.
Starring as Arthur is 21-year-old Jamie Campbell Bower, who’s following-up on a series of small parts in high-profile films such as Sweeney Todd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Newcomer Tamsin Egerton rounds out the cast as Guinevere.
After what Starz did with Spartacus, it should be interesting to see what they come up with in regards to King Arthur. How will it differentiate itself from other tellings of the Arthur legend? Can it stand out from the crowd, even from the BBC’s currently-running Merlin?