Continuing his exploration of mythic figures–some real as in 2018’s The Old Man & the Gun, and some fantastic like his adaptation of Pete’s Dragon–director David Lowery is falling somewhere in the middle with The Green Knight, coming from him and A24 early this summer, staring Dev Petel.
According to legend, Sir Gawain (Petel) was the nephew of King Arthur who took to an arduous journey to confront the Green Knight, an elemental whose defeat would yield the victor a healthy boost in reputation. Those knights loved that sort of stuff. All manner of obstacles, natural and supernatural would block Gawain’s path, which gives Lowery space to include the rest of his cast. Joel Edgerton and Alicia Vikander co-starring, with Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, and Ralph Ineson featured as well.
Lowery’s vision is both vast and remarkably intimate, with some (incorrectly!) thumbing their nose at A Ghost Story‘s lofty mysticism only to be suddenly puzzled by the classic simplicity of the Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek romance in The Old Man & the Gun. But as mentioned, The Green Knight would seem to clarify that Lowery’s interest lies in the telling of classic stories, ones passed down from one to another. Folk tales, essentially. To see him bring his talent to something as straight-up folkloric as Arthurian legend is positively exciting.
We’ll have to wait and see, with The Green Knight hitting theaters May 29.
