HEAT, PUBLIC ENEMIES and ALI helmer Michael Mann has revealed that his next project will be an adaptation of the 2008 Bernard Corwell novel Agincourt, published as Azincourt in the US. We first heard of Mann’s involvement in the big-screen version of the novel via an article at Collider back in 2011, but now the news is that Mann has officially got things going on the project by bringing British writer Stuart Hazeldine (EXAM) on board to turn said novel into a screenplay.
Amazon outlines the story:
Young Nicholas Hook is dogged by a cursed past–haunted by what he has failed to do and banished for what he has done. A wanted man in England, he is driven to fight as a mercenary archer in France, where he finds two things he can love: his instincts as a fighting man, and a girl in trouble. Together they survive the notorious massacre at Soissons, an event that shocks all Christendom. With no options left, Hook heads home to England, where his capture means certain death. Instead he is discovered by the young King of England–Henry V himself–and by royal command he takes up the longbow again and dons the cross of Saint George. Hook returns to France as part of the superb army Henry leads in his quest to claim the French crown. But after the English campaign suffers devastating early losses, it becomes clear that Hook and his fellow archers are their king’s last resort in a desperate fight against an enemy more daunting than they could ever have imagined.
One of the most dramatic victories in British history, the battle of Agincourt–immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V–pitted undermanned and overwhelmed English forces against a French army determined to keep their crown out of Henry’s hands. Here Bernard Cornwell resurrects the legend of the battle and the “band of brothers” who fought it on October 25, 1415. An epic of redemption, Agincourt follows a commoner, a king, and a nation’s entire army on an improbable mission to test the will of God and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. From the disasters at the siege of Harfleur to the horrors of the field of Agincourt, this exhilarating story of survival and slaughter is at once a brilliant work of history and a triumph of imagination—Bernard Cornwell at his best.
This looks like being another epic from Mann, and so pleased to see an accomplished, talented and yes, British writer on board in Hazeldine to adapt. We’ll be watching this one with interest. Whether this one goes before the ‘untitled’ cyber crime thriller with Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis, is still unknown, but i’ll bet that AGINCOURT will come afterwards.
Source: Deadline
