Seven years ago Joe Cornish arrived with a bang, delivering the alien invasion/coming-of-age story Attack the Block to near-universal acclaim. And then….well, not much. The promise of his debut faded into questions about Cornish’s whereabouts, although he did circle a few projects that never happened and co-wrote an Ant-Man movie with Edgar Wright that Marvel ditched. Last year Cornish re-emerged to direct The Kid Who Would Be King, another story of kid heroism with an Arthurian twist, and a new trailer for the fantasy epic has arrived.
The idea behind this one is simple: A regular kid, played by Andy Serkis’ son Ashbourne, finds the mythical sword Excalibur. It’s a modern version of the Sword in the Stone and it looks pretty cool. The biggest names include include Patrick Stewart as Merlin and Rebecca Ferguson as the evil Morgana. So a bit starrier than Attack the Block was, but we saw what that film did for John Boyega’s career and there’s the potential for the same to happen here for Serkis and his young co-stars, seen in new character posters also released today.
Here’s the synopsis: Old school magic meets the modern world in the epic adventure THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING. Alex (Ashbourne Serkis) thinks he’s just another nobody, until he stumbles upon the mythical Sword in the Stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be.
The Kid Who Would Be King opens January 25th 2019.
