Director David Lowery, the filmmaker behind "A Ghost Story," "The Old Man & The Gun,"
and "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," has teamed with A24 for the highly anticipated epic fantasy
film "The Green Knight." Here's everything we know about the movie so far.
David Lowery has been in the entertainment business for nearly three decades now — doing
everything from acting and editing to working as a second unit director, producer, and cinematographer
before finally writing and directing his own movies.
His feature directorial debut came in 2009 with the release of "St. Nick," and from there,
Lowery has written and directed a handful of films, from his critically-acclaimed original
projects as a writer-director to more traditional studio fare like the remake of "Pete's Dragon."
He's also attached as the co-writer and director of 2022's live-action "Peter Pan & Wendy"
film, according to Variety.
Basically, Lowery is a powerhouse in Hollywood, so it makes sense that following the critical
success of his 2017 movie "A Ghost Story", A24 wanted to recreate the magic. In November
2018, Deadline announced that A24 had partnered with Lowery for "The Green Knight."
The movie is described as "a fantasy epic retelling" of the 14th-century chivalric story
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," written by an anonymous author known as "Gawain Poet"
or, less commonly, the "Pearl Poet," named after a poem also included in the sole existing
Gawain manuscript.
A24 tapped Ley Line Entertainment and Bron Studios to co-finance the film, which was
reportedly made on a very low budget, according to "Entertainment Weekly," though exact numbers
haven't been made publicly available. Either way, from the teasers and trailers alone,
the movie looks like a sumptuous, stark vision; regardless of what it costs, the results are
undeniably impressive.
Before we keep talking about how "The Green Knight" is an adaptation of the "Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight" story, we should make sure that everyone knows what that story even
is. Without spoiling any of the big reveals — and trust us, there are some major ones
— here's an abridged plot summary of the famous 14th-century tale.
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" centers around King Arthur's erstwhile nephew Sir
Gawain, a largely untested knight of Camelot's famed Round Table.
Sir Gawain unexpectedly accepts a life-or-death challenge from the monstrous titular Green
Knight. According to the Green Knight's game, a challenger may attempt to strike the Green
Knight, but only on the condition that they must again face the Green Knight a year later.
Sir Gawain beheads the Green Knight, who supernaturally survives the ordeal, then embarks on a sprawling,
mind-melting journey to honor his side of the deal. Along the way, "Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight" becomes an "Odyssey"-styled epic as Sir Gawain's honor, valor, and mettle
are repeatedly proclaimed, questioned, and tested.
There's a lot more going on within the narrative that "The Green Knight" is sure to unravel
on the big screen, but delving too much into the plot would stand the chance of spoiling
things. If you want to get all the nitty-gritty details, hold out for what David Lowery and
A24 are offering in their adaptation of "The Green Knight."
David Lowery's "The Green Knight" is actually the third theatrically-released film adaptation
of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," coming after 1973's "Gawain and the Green Knight"
and 1984's "Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," both
of which were written and directed by filmmaker Stephen Weeks.
There have also been TV movie adaptations of the story as well, including a 1991 British
live-action production, and a 2002 BAFTA-award winning animated short done in the style of
stained glass windows.
In the first Stephen Weeks movie, Murray Head played Gawain and Nigel Green portrayed the
Green Knight; in the second, Miles O'Keeffe was Sir Gawain and Sean Connery was the Green
Knight.
Although the new film uses a centuries-old piece of literature as its source material
and isn't the first adaptation of that material at all, "The Green Knight" promises to breathe
new life into the tale — and not just because the R-rated film will feature "violence, some
sexuality, and graphic nudity."
When crafting "The Green Knight," Lowery found inspiration in fantasy movies from the 1980s,
horror flicks, the works of William Shakespeare, and more. As he told Entertainment Weekly
in an exclusive interview,
"In terms of visual references, we looked at everything from 'Andrei Rublev,' which
is, I think, one of the greatest movies ever made, and which you could never make now.
... We looked at 'Willow,' the Ron Howard film, which is one of my favorite fantasy
films of all time. We looked at a lot of '80s fantasy, to be honest, like 'Ladyhawke' and
'Dragonslayer' and 'Willow.'"
Lowery was also influenced by the horror films produced by Hammer Film Productions, a seven-hour-long
"Russian adaptation of 'War and Peace'" from the 1960s that had recently been restored
just as "The Green Knight" began pre-production, Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V," and tons of Shakespeare
classics.
The filmmaker affirmed that "The Green Knight" is "completely a fantasy," and that there's,
quote, "no historical accuracy to the film whatsoever." So don't go looking for this
movie if you're wanting to see a realistic rendering of Medieval times. For all you history
buffs out there, maybe wait to see the movie until it's available on streaming, so that
you don't bother anybody while you're yelling at the screen.
When "The Green Knight" does battle with some of 2021's biggest movies, and the mammoth
promotional budgets of the major studios who produced them, it will do so with the help
of a first-rate cast.
At the head of the pack playing lead character Sir Gawain is Oscar-nominated actor Dev Patel,
who has received praise and accolades in droves for his turns in "Slumdog Millionaire," "Chappie,"
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "The Personal History of David Copperfield," and more.
According to Variety, Patel joined the cast of "The Green Knight" in March 2019. That
same month, the casting of Ralph Ineson was also announced, with reports confirming his
role as the Green Knight.
Viewers may recognize Ineson from his work as Amycus Carrow in three of the eight "Harry
Potter" movies, Chris Finch in the U.K. version of "The Office," Nikolai Tarakanov in HBO's
"Chernobyl" miniseries, and also William in another masterful A24 movie, "The Witch."
Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander joins the leading duo as Lady Bertilak, the wife
of Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert, played in "The Green Knight" by prolific Australian
actor Joel Edgerton. Rounding out the cast are Sean Harris as King Arthur, Kate Dickie
as Queen Guinevere, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" star Erin Kellyman, Sarita Choudhury,
and Barry Keoghan.
The Irish Film & Television Network reported that production on "The Green Knight" kicked
off in March 2019, and listed two of the movie's filming locations: Ardmore Studios in Bray,
County Wicklow, Ireland; and Cahir Castle, located in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Films like 1974's bizarre sci-fi fantasy "Zardoz," 1995's legendary historical war epic "Braveheart,"
2004's "King Arthur," and 2012's "Byzantium" have filmed at Ardmore Studios, as have the
television series "The Tudors," "Penny Dreadful," "Camelot," "Into the Badlands," "Reign," and
the Irish version of "Dancing with the Stars."
As for Cahir Castle, it's been used for projects like 1981's "Excalibur" and the television
series "The Tudors."
According to HN Entertainment, acclaimed New Zealand-based digital visual effects company
Weta Digital spearheaded the effects for "The Green Knight." Weta Digital's Eric Saindon
told the outlet about some of the many plates the company was spinning in April 2019, sharing,
"[We're] back on the 'Avatar' movies now, [and] we're even doing a project with David
Lowery called 'Green Knight,' which is another fun project and just something on the opposite
end of the budget of 'Avatar,' but still another fun script."
In a chat with "Entertainment Weekly," David Lowery gushed about the experience of filming
"The Green Knight." He told the outlet,
"We had one day [that] was one of the most fun days that I've ever had on set. ... It
just felt like, I'm here in Ireland with my friends, making one of the coolest movies
we could ever possibly make."
It wasn't all perfect, though. Lowery did say that he ended up getting "really sick"
during filming, which on top of the stress of filming a movie was a bit of a "nightmare,"
but he powered through.
Once "The Green Knight" completed principal photography, the next order of business was
post-production en route to a festival debut and then a formal theatrical release. On March
2, 2020, Deadline announced that "The Green Knight" would make its world premiere in Austin,
Texas at the South by Southwest festival. The official premiere date was set to be on
Friday, March 16 ahead of a more robust theatrical launch on Friday, May 29.
Anyway, you all know what we're about to tell you. As literally just about everyone in the
world knows, March 2020 was the time at which COVID-19, already spreading rapidly across
the globe, finally started to upset the world order by causing everything from Broadway
to the Olympics to movie premieres worldwide to get shut down and delayed indefinitely.
We all know by now how the rest of 2020 shook out, but "Deadline" at the time reported an
optimistic outlook, saying that South by Southwest would indeed be moving forward "despite industry
panic about the coronavirus." According to the outlet, the organizers of the 2020 festival
were committed to taking any necessary precautions to make the festival as safe as possible.
But the situation developed rapidly.
Four days after Deadline's report, and less than two weeks before the intended premiere
of "The Green Knight," the festival organizers announced that the event was canceled. The
film also lost its May 29, 2020 release date as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting
down theaters, and A24 kept "The Green Knight" in limbo for months until it finally set a
new debut date.
"One… year… hence."
In December 2020, seven months after the minds behind "The Green Knight" had their dreams
dashed following the cancellation of 2020's South by Southwest festival, A24 went public
with its new game plan: The movie would become an unlikely summer blockbuster, debuting in
theaters on July 30, 2021 without any prior appearances at smaller, more exclusive film
festivals, as was originally intended.
A quick crunching of the numbers indicates that this entire series of setbacks works
out to a total delay of 16-and-a-half months from the time audiences were originally meant
to start seeing "The Green Knight" and the actual date when it's set to open in a wide
release.
If nothing else, you can tell from the YouTube comments on the movie's teaser, originally
posted in February 2020, that people have been eagerly awaiting the movie -- and letting
people know about it -- throughout the entirety of the long pandemic.
With such a stacked cast and a story filled with mystery and intrigue, though, "The Green
Knight" is sure to reward viewers for their patience, blowing everyone away when it at
long last hits silver screens this summer. As the old adage goes, good things come to
those who wait.
A24 is known for being low-key when it comes to marketing its movies, preferring to let
the films speak for themselves instead of doing any heavy, over-the-top promotion.
"The Green Knight" has continued to make headlines despite not having a massive marketing campaign
behind it — almost entirely thanks to the caliber of its creative talent in front of
and behind the camera — and what movie fans have seen of the film so far has them excited
beyond belief. "The Green Knight" has made it onto several lists of outlets' most anticipated
movies of 2021, with Observer stamping it as a "must-see" summer movie.
Over on Twitter, users have expressed their excitement for "The Green Knight" with the
kind of quippy, unrestrained posts characteristic of the platform. One poster confessed,
"Yo, I can't stop watching the latest trailer for The Green Knight. I'm SOOOOO f---ing hyped."
Another confessed that they haven't been excited about movies in quite some time, but the thought
of seeing "The Green Knight" in theaters made them feel those warm fuzzies again, writing,
"this is the first time [in] a long time i got excited with [an] upcoming release ... and
that's on the green knight"
Whether you've known about the Green Knight story or you've just learned it from this
movie, it's hard not to be excited about this dark and epic fable.
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