David Lambert
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[rant]Spielberg bringing Camelot to HBO[/rant]
LOS ANGELES, July 16 (Reuters) - Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg plans to bring the legend of Camelot back to cable television.
Spielberg will executive produce a big-budget miniseries about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table being developed by DreamWorks Television for HBO, officials for the studio and pay-cable network said on Tuesday.
The eight-part miniseries will combine the fable of Camelot, the seat of King Arthur's court, with documented accounts of historical figures on whom the mythic British monarch and his knights are believed to have been based.
Spielberg is developing the project, titled "Arthur," with Tony To, who served as a co-executive producer for the successful World War Two miniseries the director created with Tom Hanks, "Band of Brothers," a DreamWorks spokesman said.
Writer-director David Leland, who directed an episode of "Band of Brothers," is in talks to serve as writer and director on the King Arthur project.
Arthurian legend has figured in numerous Hollywood productions over the years, notably the 1967 big-screen version of the Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot," which HBO adapted for the small screen in 1982 with Richard Harris reprising his role as King Arthur.
Spielberg also borrowed from Arthurian legend for his 1989 film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," in which Harrison Ford and Sean Connery teamed up to seek the Holy Grail.
DreamWorks and HBO officials said filming of "Arthur" will likely begin early next year.
The budget is expected to run in the neighborhood of the $10 million or more per episode spent for such HBO miniseries as "Band of Brothers" and its upcoming epic "Alexander the Great," a source close to the project said.
