Summary
- Sequel to A Knight's Tale involving pirates and William's daughter was scrapped due to Netflix algorithms.
- Sony wasn't interested in the pirate plot, while Netflix's algorithm indicated the daughter plot would flop.
- Despite the passionate following for A Knight's Tale, a sequel remains uncertain due to industry decision-making.
A Knight's Tale director Brian Helgeland explains why a planned sequel to the Heath Ledger movie didn't move forward at Netflix. Released in 2001, A Knight's Tale tells the story of Ledger's William Thatcher, a peasant squire who poses as a knight and strives to achieve glory in jousting competitions. The film was a modest success at the box office, but it has since developed a passionate following due in part to Ledger's charismatic performance. Ledger tragically passed away in 2008.
In a recent interview for Inverse, Helgeland reveals that several ideas existed for A Knight's Tale 2. The writer and director explains that one idea even went so far as to generate interest from Sony, but a planned collaboration with Netflix on the project fell apart due to the latter company's algorithmic data. Check out Helgeland's comments on the scrapped sequel below:
When we finished A Knight’s Tale, we were already thinking about making the sequel as a pirate film. The plot revolved around Count Adhemar kidnapping Jocelyn and taking her to Constantinople. They end up as galley slaves after their boat is captured by pirates. There’s a prisoner on the boat who has a treasure map tattooed on his back, but he keeps getting flogged for indiscipline. The guys volunteer to take turns getting flogged in this prisoner’s place, so the map isn’t erased. Sony didn’t want to do it.
There was another idea pitched to me that was all about William’s daughter. Paul Bettany called me after he had dinner with Alan Tudyk, and the guys had an idea that William had passed away during a war. However, William has a teenage daughter who wants to joust, but she’s not allowed to because she’s a woman. She tracks down the gang and they agree to teach her how to joust, but she has to hide who she is. They cut her hair short and she speaks with a deep voice, et cetera.
I pitched it to Sony because they own the rights, and it seemed like they were interested in making it with Netflix, releasing it as a Netflix movie. My understanding is that Netflix tested this sequel idea through their algorithms, which indicated that it would not be successful. A Knight’s Tale seems to get more popular with every passing year; it’s the strangest thing.
More to come...
Source: Inverse