I don’t think that THE LION IN WINTER can be considered as a sequel to BECKET in any way. True, LION was made later and takes place about thiteen years after BECKET, but it’s not an extension of the first story. The two films take place in different “realities.”
BECKET is based on a 1960 play by the French playwright Jean Anouilh. It is a dramatization of historical events that actually happened, its twelfth-century setting looks pretty much like the real thing, and the characters behave as they would in the cultural and political heirarchy of their time.
LION, on the other hand, is based on a 1966 play by American playwright James Goldman. It is an imaginative, speculative, “behind-the-scenes” look at the dysfunctional Plantagenet family, set at a Christmas court that never happened (History tells us that Eleanor spent the holidays in the slammer that year). And while the setting may look like the twelfth century, the characters live in a delightfully anachronistic world, and act and sound a great deal like we do today. (They even have a Christmas tree, five hundred years before anyone else in England!)
The Punkyova has already pointed out the differences in the characters of the BECKET Henry and the LION Henry. It’s a testament to Peter O’Toole’s talent that he portrayed these two VERY different Henries–for all purposes two entirely different people–with equal skill.
I read last night that Steven Gross was filming a Tremors television show as well as a movie, Tremors 4. I was slightly shocked as I don’t even remember Tremors 3.
And it’s even stranger because 1.) He shows up in the sequel with nary a scratch considering almost being killed (unlike Westlake who was horribly burned). 2.) He seemed shocked that Westland is still around, even though he’s already come back from the dead once and at least he was badly burned. Durant seems even less likely to have survived.
I’ve seen Tremors and Tremors 2, but not Tremors 3. Gonna have to look for that last one the next time I’m at Blockbuster.
I while back I saw an add for the Tremors TV series. One of the new monsters will be the Ass Blaster, which uses farts for rocket propulsion. Sounds like my kinda TV show
Despite this, I have seen Henry’s line “I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life,” listed in seemingly reputable collections of quotations.
If Diceman saw the same ad for the upcoming TV series that I saw, it uses clips from Tremors 2 & 3. That doesn’t encourage me they may be recycling effects and footage in ads before the series even starts.
Speaking of LION IN WINTER (which I often am) and sequels (well, remakes really) it’s being reshot with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close in the leads. He’s a perfect choice if it just absolutely has to be remade, but her I’m not so sure on…
(It was a B’way play two years ago starring Lawrence Fishburne and Stockard Channing; Whoopi Goldberg has always hoped to one day star in a production as well.)
Sorry to disappoint, but I’ve seen it. And whoooo-boy, did it stink.
Until The Exorcist 3 came out, none of my friends in school would believe that I had seen The Exorcist 2. Not that it was really something to brag about.
