A Movie for Me and I Almost Missed It

Have you seen the ads for the movie "King Arthur"?  They caught my eye because of what was missing from them.  Namely, that title card that tells you who is in it.  I mean, forget the voice over that says "Starring Academy Award Winner [whoever] as Arthur," this thing doesn't even tell you the players in a 5 second text-filled card on the screen.

And I thought, "Wow, there must be some set of nobodies in this picture to not even warrant a title card."  So the other day, I notice the Keira Knightley is on Leno, and I say to myself, "Wonder what she's plugging," and it turns out she's playing Guinevere, and I'm all, "Well, that's not so bad."  I decide to pull up the Internet Movie Database entry on the film and it is at this point I nearly fall off the couch.

Merlin is played by Stephen Dillane. 

Now, regular readers of this journal might have a vague recollection of that name.  He's a British stage actor who I would unreservedly see in anything he happens to be doing, just because he's so freakin' good.  (I mentioned him a journal entry way back in March, when I conveniently found a DVD of an old mini-series I'd enjoyed way back before I even knew he starred in it.)

So, OK, I'm all over this movie.  Then I read down a little more.

Lancelot is played by Ioan Gruffudd.

Gruffudd is a fellow who intrigues me (and not only because he's actually attempting a career in Hollywood without changing his name to something a little less Welsh -- a fairly bold move).  I like him as an actor (he won me -- and a great may others -- over with the series of "Horatio Hornblower" movies on A&E).  But, even more than that, I've been fascinated by the way he's being marketed.  He was the Sympathetic Hero Lawyer in the short-lived (and eminently mockable) show "Century City" -- and you could tell it was one of those roles where his character always did the thing most geared to make a female viewing audience fall in love with him.  Like Gruffudd is going out of his way to take the sort of "leading man" parts that will someday land him in the running for People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue.  So he'll be playing Lancelot.  (Figures.)  I'm curious enough to go.

Point is:  The actors in this movie aren't complete unknowns -- and their presence in it will likely make me see the dang thing, whereas otherwise I would have let it pass.  I think the people who made this picture are damn lucky the Internet Movie Database is out there so that the few people who might actually be interested in the casting of the picture can actually find out who is in it.  Because otherwise, I never would have known.