Ridley Scott is one of the most respected and powerful filmmakers working in Hollywood, and has been for decades. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill, the star of “Man of Steel” and “The Witcher,” is currently one of the biggest actors in the business. One would imagine a team up between these two would result in something major. Well, that collaboration did happen back in 2006 and all it resulted in, sad to say, is a big flop that effectively killed the production company that backed it.
The movie in question is “Tristan & Isolde,” a historical epic that was once a passion project for Scott. The director loves historical epics to this day, having recently directed the blockbuster “Gladiator II,” a sequel to his 2000 Best Picture-winner. Good things can happen when Scott is in the director’s chair. Unfortunately, Scott was merely a producer on this film.
“Tristan & Isolde” takes place after the fall of the Roman Empire and centers on Tristan (James Franco), an English orphan who meets and falls in love with Isolde (Sophia Myles), an Irish princess due to marry Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell), who raised Tristan. The passion of these two young people causes a rift with the country’s leadership, leading to a massive, deadly battle. Cavill, who was just emerging as an actor, played the supporting role of Melot.
Kevin Reynolds, the man behind the infamous flop that was “Waterworld,” ended up in the director’s chair for this one. 20th Century Fox signed on to distribute the film, with Scott Free Productions producing alongside the now-defunct Franchise Productions. Why is it now defunct? In short, it made some bad financial decisions, but this was the final nail in the coffin.
“I wanted to make ‘Tristan & Isolde’ as my second movie,” Scott explained to MovieWeb in 2006. “My first movie was ‘The Duellists.’ And I was standing in a very romantic part of France looking around me thinking, ‘My God, this would be perfect for Tristan,’ and to cut a long story short it never happened because I did ‘Alien’ instead.”
