THE GREEN KNIGHT

THE GREEN KNIGHT I Acclaimed director David Lowery puts a new spin on Arthurian legend.

David Lowery on his Arthurian oddity.

Even though I’m moving from a Disney film to a strange haunted-house movie to a crime caper with Robert Redford to a bizarro medieval fantasy film… to me, they’re all coming from the same place, and dealing with so many of the same ideas.”

Director David Lowery’s filmography is nothing if not varied. Pete’s Dragon.A Ghost Story. The Old Man And The Gun. Next up is The Green Knight, a visually stunning retelling of the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), a Round Table knight who gets into a pickle with the titular green meanie.

Lowery sees core themes across all of his films. “I try not to self-analyse too much, but my films have often dealt with the idea of home, or leaving one’s home, or finding one’s home somewhere unexpected,” he tells Teasers. “And then they also have an overriding focus on time and mortality. This film fits right in with those.”

Lowery studied the canonical epic poems as a freshman, gravitating towards the strangeness of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. (A longtime fan of Arthurian lore, a six-year-old Lowery wrote his first script about Sir Percival.)

Inspired to make a fantasy movie by the likes of The Lord Of The Rings and Ron Howard’s Willow, Lowery revisited Gawain and the whole project came together speedily.

“I didn’t think I’d ever find a financier willing to make a bizarre arthouse fantasy adventure film,” laughs Lowery. “But it all just clicked into place very, very quickly. I started writing it, and a year later we were shooting it. And now, a year after that, we’re just about done.”

Also on Lowery’s lofty inspirations list are Scorsese’s Silence, Jarmusch’s Dead Man, Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev. “The movie is a balancing act of tones... It contains multitudes of genres within it, and it is a strange, strange movie,” he smiles. “It tiptoes around the edges of humour. But by and large, it is very contemplative. It is dreadful, in that it is full of dread. It’s not a horror film, but horror is my favourite genre, so I always find myself stepping into those waters, regardless of what movie I’m making.” MM

ETA | 29 MAY / THE GREEN KNIGHT IS SCHEDULED TO OPEN THIS SUMMER AT THE TIME OF PRESS.

‘I DIDN’T THINK I’D EVER FIND ANYONE WILLING TO MAKE A BIZARRE ARTHOUSE FANTASY ADVENTURE FILM’

DAVID LOWERY