Michael J. Bassett Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last year, Jessica was keeping us up-to-date on the beginning morsels of the Solomon Kane project. First, James Purefoy signed on to star, and then a poster was released, although the rest of the cast had yet to be named. Finally, Empire has reported on the growing cast, which is one hell of a great collection of character actors. Production is about to begin, and these are the guys and gals that will be joining Purefoy on the big screen -- Pete Postlethwaite (The Omen), Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Rachel Hurd-Wood (Perfume), Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact), and Mackenzie Crook (the one-eyed dude from Pirates of the Caribbean).

This project is planned to be the first of three films, and with more of these guys to come, here's who they will play -- von Sydow will play Kane's father, Hurd-Wood will play Meredith, Kridge will play Meredith's mother, Postlethwaite will take on the role of her dad, and finally Crook will play Father Michael. Solomon Kane is about, believe it or not, a somber Puritan who travels the world and saves it from all forms of evil. I wonder how Robert E. Howard came up with that. Puritans aren't the sort of people that usually bring to mind heroism. Anyway... Production begins really soon in Prague, with Michael J. Bassett (Deathwatch) directing.

When you consider that the big-screen adaptation of Solomon Kane only just found a lead a little over a month ago, the producers certainly seem to be wasting no time in getting the film in gear. The Movie Blog now has a first look at the teaser poster for the action-adventure flick. The film is based on the adventure series of the same name by Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard about a cursed 16th Century swordsman. Back in October, Rome's James Purefoy had signed to star as Kane, an immortal swordsman who is forced out of 'retirement' for an all-out battle between good and evil. In the stories Kane was described as "a somber and gloomy man of pale face and cold eyes, all of it shadowed by a slouch hat". One look at this poster and you can see that Purefoy is an excellent choice.

The first appearance of Kane was in back 1928 in the magazine Weird Tales. Over the years, the character has appeared in over 13 stories and was even the subject of a 1976 Marvel Comic. A lot has changed since 1928, and some of the text has become the subject of criticism over its shall we say 'antiquated' views on race and women -- you know you're in trouble when you describe African tribesmen as, 'closer to mankind's beast ancestors'. Then again, it was written in 1928, so what are you going to do? I guess we will just have to hope that Michael J Bassett (writer and director for the film) has some serious re-writes in mind. Solomon Kane is set for release in 2008.

Check out the full-size poster after the jump ...