I heard some time ago that Julianna Margulies is going to be in a movie about King Arthur. At least, I think that is what I heard. The reason I ask is that I am reading a really good book called "The Winter King" that I checked out of the library by accident. It is about King Arthur so I may have Arthur-on-the-brain and be imagining the whole movie thing. As I have been reading, I keep thinking that the book would make a great movie. Does anyone know about an Arthur movie with Julianna, and if so, what character she would play, what it will be called, and what (if any) book it is based upon? I know there are countless retellings of the Arthur legend, and the book I am reading is just one more, but it would be really neat if it was the same book. THANKS!

-- Annie (GoldenLaur@aol.com), June 30, 2000

Answers

Per IMDb.com, she's filming THE MISTS OF AVALON right now...for a miniseries. Based on the book by Marian Zimmer Bradley. It's a very popular Arthurian novel too. I bought a copy at a Friends of the Library sell in early spring.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), June 30, 2000.

Julianna is playing Morgaine, Arthur's half-sister, in The Mists of Avalon. (Also known as Morgan le Fay.)

I loved the Winter King, and the two books that came after it: Enemy of God, and Excalibur. They're wonderfully realistic. I'd love it if they were made into movies, too! *sigh* Maybe someday.

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), June 30, 2000.

"The Mists Of Avalon" will air on TNT as a 4 hour miniseries in July of 2001. (sucks that we have to wait that long) They are probably still filming in Prague.

The main cast includes: (I hope that this spaces the way I want it to cuz it never seems to do so whenever I post a list)

Morgaine - Julianna (duh) Viviane - Anjelica Huston Morgause - Joan Allen Igraine - Caroline Goodall Gwenhwyfar - Samantha Mathis Arthur - Edward Atterton Lancelot - Michael Vartan Mordred - Hans Matheson

For those not familiar with the book or the characters, and if you care at all, let me draw out their relations to Julianna's character.

Viviane - her aunt, raised her Igraine - her mother Morgause - her other aunt, raises her son Arthur - her half-brother, father of her son (don't even ask) Gwenhwyfar - Arthur's wife Lancelot - her cousin, Viviane's son Mordred - her son

Its a fabulous book. I'm in the process of reading the 2 prequels to it. Anyway, I hope that they don't totally butcher the book...I don't see how they can possibly cover everything in 3 hours. It'll end up being like Les Miz. No matter how you try, it ain't gonna happen in 3 hours.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), July 01, 2000.

God damnit, it didn't space.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), July 01, 2000.

Yes, it's way too complex to come out perfectly on TV. I don't know how they're going to manage it.

I read on a.t.e that there was an article somewhere that described Julianna as studying swordfighting for the movie. I hope this isn't true--Morgaine was not a fighter, at least in the physical sense! *sigh* But there have to be aspects of Hollywood in all things, I suppose, if they're going to be on TV.

What are the titles of the prequels? I just read Mists a few months ago, haven't started searching for the other books by MZB yet.

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

Did anyone watch 'Merlin'? I don't know if it was only showed in Britain because most of the actors were British (always helps when telling a traditional English story!! Sorry - Just think Kevin Costner and Robin Hood!) Anyway, that was an excellent adaptation of the story so I'm sure it will be equally well shown in your US version!

-- Torrie (Torrie_babe@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

The 2 prequels are "The Forest House" and "Lady Of Avalon".

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), July 01, 2000.

Thanks, JLS! I'll be looking for them. :)

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

Michael Vartan was in THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS with Noah Wyle.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), July 02, 2000.

Thank you, everyone, for your interesting and helpful posts! I will have to read this book when I finish with the Warlord Chronicles. Cecelia, I'm with you--I would love to see a movie of "The Winter King"! It's hard for me to imagine Julianna as Morgan/Morgaine, though, because in the books I am reading, she was in a terrible fire that almost killed her, and so is very disfigured and even wears a mask. And Julianna is so pretty, it would be a shame to cover her face. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

-- Annie (GoldenLaur@aol.com), July 03, 2000.

Well, there's no such fire in "The Mists Of Avalon". (at least not to my knowledge) Although Morgaine is supposed to be semi non- attractive. She's also supposed to be really small and short. I guess they kinda just tossed physical appearance aside when they cast Julianna. Tho Julianna does have the black hair Morgaine is supposed to have. Several people have expressed that they felt Julianna was much too pretty for the role.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), July 03, 2000.

When Merlin was shown in the UK, they had cast Helena Bonham Carter as Morgaine. The first part of the programme she had a lisp, greasy lanky hair, a lazy eye, bad teeth - she looked terrible. Then she was transformed by a spell. I suppose that is what they'll do with Julianna.

-- Vicki (ms_peachy_pie@hotmail.com), July 04, 2000.

But "The Mists Of Avalon" isn't the same exact story as "Merlin" or all the other King Arthur stories, I don't think. In Mists, Morgaine doesn't change, except in getting older.

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), July 04, 2000.

The thing about Mists and Winter King, is that the magic is not as obvious, especially in Winter King. In Merlin, there was a lot of fantasy-magic, very fairy-tale and sorcery, and in these books that we're talking about, the magic is much more subtle. In Mists, it's very ethereal a lot of it consists of visions. I hope they don't Hollywood it up too much...

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

Julianna Margulies will portray Morgaine. The Mists of Avalon will priemere in July. It will be a four hour mini series about the legend of King Arthur. I think the book was more about the women of Camelot. They are Viviane played by Anjelica Huston who uses Morgaine to get control of Camelot. The evil Morgause will be played by Joan Allen. Samantha Mathis will play Queen Gwenhwyfar (my favorite) that is married to Arthur, but falls inlove with Arthur's friend who is a knight nammed Lancelot. The men will be played by Michael Vartan as Lancelot (you might recongnize him from Never Been Kissed, where he played the teacher who fell inlove with Drew Barrymore). Edward Arreton will play King Arthur. If you want to learn more go to www.tnt.turner.com and go to TNT originals. They show previews on TV at the end of a movie. For example right now there showing Lost in Space after the movies over just wait till the credits come up, that's when they usually show them. If you have anymore questions about The Mists of Avalon please e-mail me, I should know them because I've read the book and other stories of Camelot.

-- Megan Devlin (Meg16@37.com), March 05, 2001.

lalalala....and screencaps for said promo on TNT can be seen here:

http://www.geocities.com/ewwhatevr/moa.html

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), March 05, 2001.

Morgaine was not supposed to be ugly or unattractive. Even in the story (mists) Gweneyfar says "Moragaine is beautiful" so she was not unattractive. She was supposed to be dark. More like a fairy, small, pettite and dark. She was exotic. Casting Julianna as Morgaine was very well done when it comes to physical appearance. I thought Merlin was a horrible retelling of the Arthurian legend and was perfectly horrified when they portrayed Morgaine as ugly and disfigured.

-- Maria A. (Artist5867@aol.com), March 23, 2001.

Actually, Gwen did call her ugly, at least when they first met: "Little and ugly and dark like the fairy people."

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), March 24, 2001.

That was at the beginning, but if you happen to read past the first 100 or so pages you will later on that she realizes that Morgaine is beautiful.

-- Maria A. (Artist5867@aol.com), April 28, 2001.

Also to clear another thing up, Morgause is in no way evil. She is ambitous and somewhat ruthless, but she is not evil. If you have read the story you know that she has great care and love for many people, but I guess the way some can interpret that is that she is evil, even though I have no idea as to how. Also, not to sound condescending in any way, when commenting about this movie please try not intertwine other stories of the Arthurian legend into it. They are all extremely different and usually have nothing to do with each other save the basis of the story. The Winter King is totally different then Mists, but people are using components of that story in what they say about Mists. Such as the Morgaine appearance thing and so on...

-- Maria A. (Artist5867@aol.com), April 28, 2001.

Duly chastised. *snort*

-- Cecelia (evilstoat@hotmail.com), April 28, 2001.

Hi. I've read Mists so many times that the cover fell apart. :) It's a great book. I'm eagerly awaiting the movie, even though I've learned from experience that movies and books are always different.

I think that the people in Mists considered Morgaine to be "ugly" only in that she did not fit the ideal of womanhood for the time. She was dark, short, tom boyish, forward, and cared nothing for the niceties of the court. In short, she was peasantish, at least in the eyes of people who wanted to see tall, Celtic, golden-haired, white skinned women. Besides, she was a pagan in a world where Christianity was considered the new civilized religion. She had a tattoo of a crescent on her forehead. She stood out. When Gwenhyfar looked at her, for instance, she had the same reaction you or I might have to seeing a Native American shaman in full traditional gear. If you're a superstitious Christian like Gwen was in Mists, you'd be afraid and repulsed. It's that simple.

I think Julianna is great, although in the book they go on and on about Morgaine's "straight dark hair, dark and smooth as a raven't wing". Julianna, as we know, has curly hair. Other than that, (and a disturbing glimpse of a RED, that's right, RED crescent on her forehead in a preview...it's supposed to be BLUE, woad is BLUE, not RED), she looks great. I haven't gotten a good look at any of the other characters in the one crappy preview I've seen. I hope Lancelet looks good. I hope Arthur isn't a sap. And I hope they don't try to angle it to make the pagans out to be bad guys, because in the book they are quite the opposite (underdog wise ones trying desperately to preserve a sacred way of life.)

I hope everyone has a good experience of this movie, including myself. :) Bye!

-- Megan (visionmw@yahoo.com), May 13, 2001.

Just like to add that I know the girl who plays Morgan Le Fey as a child in the series and I saw her when she came home during filming in prague and she had had her hair dyed black to look the part so I guess that Julianna Margulies has had hers dyed too.....

-- Sophie (ElmerTheElephant@aol.com), May 27, 2001.

Why would Julianna have to dye her hair. Morgaine in the book has dark hair, as does Julianna. Julianna had on hair extensions but certainly didn't need to dye it. Young Morgaine is played by Tamsin Egerton, if anyone cares. I assume she is British...? They cast much of the film in England, I believe.

I recently got an advance screening copy of the film and its an amazing piece of work. Although you really need to forget everything you know from the book or you will go crazy watching it. They left out SOOO much and changed a lot.

I just finished snapping over 100 screen captures from it the other day if people wanna take a look-see:

http://www.geocities.com/ewwhatevr/moa.html

-- JLS (ewwhatevr@aol.com), May 27, 2001.

As always, THANKS, JLS! And great to see your name on this site again.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 28, 2001.

Hi there! I was just searching for who was portraying young Morgaine. This is an awesome thread. I just finished reading TMOA and now am watching the movie on TNT. Just as a note, Morgaine's crescent on her brow was red because it was newly tattooed. That freaked me out too. I thought the movie was going to screw everything up if they couldn't do at least that much right, but actually so far it's not half bad. I'd definately reccomend tuning in.

-- Sabriel (s_abhorsen@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001.