lions of al-rassan

[alonewiththemoon]

(hi, silentq!)

Apparently the book is  being made into a movie:


Warner Brothers has attached Ed Zwick to direct the fantasy historical epic film The Lions of Al-Rassan, an adaptation of Guy Gavriel Kay's novel about the collision of religions in Spain during the Middle Ages that melds fact and fantasy, Variety reported.

Vera Blasi (Woman on Top) will write the script based on the book, a historical fantasy set at the beginning of the Christian re-conquest of Moorish Spain. A triangle forms between two warrior princes and a female doctor in the fictional locale of Al-Rassan. The author veils the faiths and introduces magical elements into the historical framework, the trade paper reported.

I do hope the screenwriter and production crew are aware of the fact that it isn't actually about Spain.  I do hope this is good.  Zwick's IMDB resume doesn't fill me with hope--it doesn't look like he's actually directed before--but at least he has historical epic experience.  Maybe a combination of Traffic and Shakespeare in Love would be just the right approach...

Comments

[silentq.livejournal.com]

And it's not about Christianity, either. :/ I'd love to see an adpatation that focuses on the three religions involved rather than transposing to Christian/Muslim/Jewish. Hrm, wonder how they'll deal with the moons.
Part of what I love about Kay is his use of language, and I fear that will be lost in a script adaptation, if it's not done somewhat faithfully. I just found a copy of Kay's book of poems (Beyond this dark house) and read that in an evening - it was a bit startling to be exposed to the author directly rather than through his characterisations, but the themes from his books tend to shine through in the poetry as well.