By Having conquered blockbusters with X-Men: First Class and the arthouse with his outstanding turn in Shame, Michael Fassbender is preparing to take on the epic with the lead role in an adaptation of the Red Branch Cycle, one of the great bodies of Irish heroic mythology. Fassbender, who is developing the project (tentatively titled Irish Myths) with writer Ronan Bennett, is lining up the role of Cú Chulainn – Cuhullin or Cuchulain in English – a warrior roughly analogous to that of Achilles from Greek mythology.
All of that information comes from Wikipedia and the sourced article, since my knowledge of the story is virtually nil. That makes the project all the more appealing for me, though: hero epics are wonderful when done correctly – and given Fassbender’s Irish heritage, hopefully he’ll have the appropriate respect – but the more popular ones have been done to death, no matter how revisionist the interpretation. Hopefully Fassbender’s star will enable the film to find adequate funding and bring a relatively unknown mythology to greater prominence.
[via Indiewire]