In 2001, “A Knight’s Tale” directed by Brian Helgeland hit theaters and became a hit, grossing $117 million at the worldwide box office. The medieval action-comedy has continued to strike a chord with bigger audiences each year. So this begs the question; why no sequel?
Helgeland recently opened up in an interview about the sequel that never was thanks to Netflix’s algorithm.
The Plot
“When we finished ‘A Knight’s Tale,’ we were already thinking about making the sequel as a pirate film,” Helgeland explained. “The plot revolved around Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell) kidnapping Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) 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.”
The ensemble cast for “A Knight’s Tale” also includes the late Heath Ledger, Paul Bettany, Alan Tudyk, and Mark Addy (“Game of Thrones“). The plot for the proposed sequel was created by Bettany and Tudyk and pitched to Helgeland. Unfortunately, Ledger had already passed away, so the script had to work around his fan-favorite character’s absence.
“The guys had an idea that William (Ledger) had passed away during a war,” says Helgeland. “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.”
The Fail Pitch
“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,” the director adds. “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.”
Netflix has not commented on this, but it’s not a far-fetched tale. Hollywood has used things like test audiences and screening to gauge how viable a movie would be for decades. Now with the ever-growing use of AI, it makes sense that this process would become automated.
We’ll keep you posted on details about the sequel to “A Knight’s Tale” if/when they become available. If you’ve never seen the film, we HIGHLY suggest it. You can pick up a copy on Amazon for under $10! (The making-of BTS featurettes are worth it!)
