New Eleanor of Aquitaine Series

[An Ard Ri]

Starz are to produce a new miniseries on the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine based on the of Alison Weir!

https://deadline.com/2020/11/starz-...-conklin-playground-entertainment-1234616838/

 

[LauraS3514]

Starz are to produce a new miniseries on the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine based on the of Alison Weir!

https://deadline.com/2020/11/starz-...-conklin-playground-entertainment-1234616838/

I'd rather see one based on Sharon Kay Penman's books...

 

[Alison H]

I haven't got Starz :-( . I hope it comes out somewhere else. I am constantly moaning about the fact that we get ten billion series based on the Tudors but none on the Plantagenets. Nothing against the Tudors, just that it'd be nice to see one about different people!

 

[An Ard Ri]

And Alison Weir is one of my favourite authors,looking forward to this!

 

[Denville]

Weir is not a historian or a serious biographer IMO. I would not watch a show based on one of her books.

 

[Lori138]

I haven't got Starz :-( . I hope it comes out somewhere else. I am constantly moaning about the fact that we get ten billion series based on the Tudors but none on the Plantagenets. Nothing against the Tudors, just that it'd be nice to see one about different people!

I heartily agree. The Tudors are not my favorite Dynasty but the Plantagenets certainly are!

 

[An Ard Ri]

One of my favourite biographies was Alison Weir's 'Eleanor Of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England' I really hope this one is used.

I agree too regarding the Plantagenets!

 

[Amalia96]

Release date?

Does anybody know when approximately this series is coming out? I know it is too early and it is still in development. Any clue would be useful. There have been no news since November 2020.
Thank you!

 

[An Ard Ri]

Release date?

Does anybody know when approximately this series is coming out? I know it is too early and it is still in development. Any clue would be useful. There have been no news since November 2020.
Thank you!

Sadly there has been no update since November 2020 and I'm thinking that the series was shelved or cancelled by Starz?

 

[Mirabel]

I just hope it is reasonably accurate! Not like the latest butchery titled My Lady Jane.
Really, if the entertainment industry wants to create a fantasy series, fine. But why use the names of historic figures? Why not just use any names? It's getting ridiculous.

 

[An Ard Ri]

I just hope it is reasonably accurate! Not like the latest butchery titled My Lady Jane.
Really, if the entertainment industry wants to create a fantasy series, fine. But why use the names of historic figures? Why not just use any names? It's getting ridiculous.

Oh I agree and I simply wouldn't insult my intelligence by looking at the likes of My Lady Jane and will be one to avoid!

 

[Toledo]

Oh I agree and I simply wouldn't insult my intelligence by looking at the likes of My Lady Jane and will be one to avoid!

I got good news for you @An Ard Ri , the series was just cancelled after one bad season only:
My Lady Jane’ Canceled by Prime Video After One Season

And if you read the end of the article, we get to know why this TV series with real life historical characters failed to stop using the formula on every single TV show nowadays:

• change storylines and pass the for real
• change genders or swaps ethnicities and pass them for real
• change events and historical trends of the times and put a heavy dose of current cancel culture plights and demands so it fits a forced message from production

I mean, this is the series in a nutshell per the article above:

"Created by Gemma Burgess based on the 2016 YA historical fiction novels, My Lady Jane takes an alt-history approach to one of England’s monarchs with the shortest rule, the 16th century Lady Jane Grey, aka the Nine Days Queen. Mixing palace intrigue with a fantastical take on class, the series is set in a world inhabited by Ethians, humans who can take animal form, who are banished from society by the ruling class of regular humans, known as Verity...:

​

Re Eleanor TV series in the making, her life was extraordinary and missing from the famous Katherine Hepburn movie is how she had many other children and interfered with the politics of so many countries, too with her daughters. The movie was a dialogue masterpiece from the theater play The Lion in Winter and was done again in a terrible TV adaptation starring Glenn Close and Star Trek 'Captain Picard'/Xmen Prof Xavier.
And the plot and characters were reused with the Lyons family on the TV show Empire

Everyone Keeps Comparing Empire to King Lear, But The Lion in Winter Is Its True Predecessor

On Empire, Taraji P Henson's lead character was a better match to Katherine Hepburn's Eleanor than Glen Close's version as the best modern version of Eleanor's life adapted for a TV show. Empire's Taraji P Henson's character was the vengeful ex-wife replaced by a younger woman after she made her husband the powerful man he became. And the series also includes The Lion in winter's dysfunctional children that had an adaptation of Richard the Black Prince as Jamal Lyon.

My fear is a new version of Eleanor will probably end up as another attempt to force the generic formula we see in every show nowadays, just place in the plot modern politics, social causes and agendas and make every episode have a lighthearted modern life lesson to get pass the dreaded cancel culture online bullies pushing their agendas.

 

[GondorHasNoPants]

The other thing I find exasperating about a lot of costume drama shows these days is the focus on sex, violence and shock value scenes at the expense of telling a good, serious, dramatic story.

The recent series set at the court of James I - Mary and George - I should have loved that. But watching the trailer was enough to make me say 'absolutely not'.

So, if someone is going to make a show about Eleanor of Aquitaine - something I would absolutely love to see, if it's going to be more 'Sex in the City' and less 'The Lion in Winter', I would say, just don't bother, please.

 

[Toledo]

I saw the series Mary and George and it was so distorted to force in modern day social media politics I wonder why even bother passing it for historical. Why not just make it full fiction novel that just happens to be in that time period.

 

[Alison H]

Someone told me about the Lady Jane series, and I thought it was going to be a proper historical drama. I was so annoyed when I found out what it was really like! And now there's this new film about Catherine Parr, based on a book which was utter rubbish and completely historically inaccurate. Mary and George wasn't too bad, but the scriptwriters seemed more interesting in swearing than history - it was like when you're about 12 and you think that using the f-word every five minutes makes you look really cool and grown up, but most people grow out of that by the time they're 14!

Who invented the term "alt-history"? No, thank you!