Forum Activity for @katy-penland

Hollywood and Owain Glyndwr?

Promoting Wales in the USA

First, apologies for taking so long to respond. I didnt have the notify me box checked for replies to this thread and didnt see yours until logging in today. I italicized parts of your post I'm responding to (couldn't find where font colors are allowed).Intriguing! I was just wondering how you would handle the ending.Sorry, youll have to wait til it airs. Where do you stand on the whole assassination theory. Was there a conspiracy in the "belfry at Bangor" as the "Brut y tywysogion" seems to suggest?I think a lot depends on how you interpret old records. Whether one can take the reference literally, or whether the Brut is alluding to the numerous problems Llywelyn had with Bangors Bishop Anian and later with Archbishop Pecham is completely open to debate. The fact that Pechams summoning of John of Wales to try to intercede with Llywelyn, and John ended up taking Llywelyns side of the issues in contention must have infuriated Pecham, embarrassing him not only in front of Llywelyn but with Edward, too, who hadnt endorsed Pechams second journey to Gwynedd in the first place.I would give my eye teeth to have a copy of Pechams Register of letters translated into English (theyre in medieval Latin). Ive only been able to find a few translated excerpts here and there, but I think they might be most enlightening.I believe an assassination plot was highly probable based on the paper with false names that was found on Llywelyns body and mysteriously never seen or referenced again (to cover any possibility of identifying the writer or conspirators?). Edward and the Marchers were mutually antagonistic as well as opportunistic allies when it suited them and neither Edward nor the Marchers, especially Mortimer, could afford to let Llywelyn live. With old Roger Mortimer dead, Llywelyn could very well have been buoyed by false hope that the younger Edmund Mortimer wished peace and had formed an alliance with the sons of other old Marcher adversaries to meet with him. And at that stage in his life, he really had nothing more to lose by trying.I think most people imagine that Owain is a better candidate for Hollywood treatment because his story has a sort of happy ending. Taking a nap in a cave for a few millenia beats getting beheaded I suppose. But then of course there are the rumours about Owain And Elvis Presley running a chip shop in Corwen! ( see elsewhere on this site )Lol! Hey, I work in the industry and I am just as annoyed by Hollywoods cavalier treatment of historical subjects, witness Braveheart. Ugh. Still, I can name as many history books that have inaccurate or highly speculative information in them, all touted as true facts. Movies and television are easier targets because there are fewer of them, theyre more high-profile, and are far more expensive than any book ever published and so earn the ire of the critical viewer (yet, ironically, budget is sometimes what constrains factual fidelity in film). Just a few weeks ago, I returned a $110 scholarly book to Amazon for a full refund because of the incredible number of glaring factual errors in the introduction alone. Most disheartening! So maybe some of the blame for bad films can be laid at the feet of bad source material. Not defending stupid movies like Braveheart but just asking to keep an open mind about what may have transpired in the course of their production.Dont know that I agree with you about happy endings making projects more amenable to being produced. Some of the most celebrated films of all time didnt end well for the protagonist. But Hollywood is also very fickle, and whatever genre was successful at last weekend's box office becomes the flavor-of-the-month. The spate of sequels and computer-generated films is indicative of an industry terrified of taking risks on a good story, happy ending or sad. Glyndwrs story has no ending, and that would leave me terrified as a writer (because no matter what I wrote, it wouldnt satisfy everybody) and unfulfilled as an audience (because there was no end of the beginning, middle and end structure that all good storytelling has to have.But Ive now wandered far afield of the thread topic so will put a cork in it!

Hollywood and Owain Glyndwr?

Promoting Wales in the USA

Oh, please please please, be patient a little longer, I implore you. (Howzzat for melodrama?) I've been researching and writing and obsessing over the script for a mini-series for American TV on the life of the first and last (and only, IMHO) Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Not to demean anyone who believes that Glyndwr is worthy of notice -- he most certainly is. But after several years of research including two trips to Wales, Llywelyn's story is so much more compelling, and less known (thanks to Edward I's near expunging of Welsh records of his rule), and the social, political and legal changes he brought about in his too-short reign were truly extraordinary. I've been cultivating interest in this project in Hollywood, where I've worked for over 20 years, and am feverishly working to get enough of the script completed to get the deal set.In the meantime, and to keep my post sort of on topic, I'll indulge in a bit of fantasy casting but for a Llywelyn story:Llywelyn ap Gruffudd: Ioan Gruffudd (who would have to age 40 years throughout and because he's authentic Welsh and says this would be a dream role)Edward I: Hugh Jackman (because he is a "longshanks" and can play duplicitous real well)Simon de Montfort: Robert Lindsay (one of the finest English actors alive since so many of the Old Vic players are sadly gone now)Eleanor de Montfort, Llywelyn's wife: Catherine Zeta-Jones ('nuf said)And that's just the tip of the iceberg of my dream cast if I had any say about it, which the writer never does. Another fantasy is to have this shot entirely in Wales, and in the beginning the dialogue in Welsh with English sub-titles, gradually migrating into English with occasional Welsh scattered throughout. I would have loved to have it entirely in Welsh but, as we say in showbiz, it won't play in Peoria. Still, I want as much of the Welsh language to be used as possible to give the American audience an idea of what it sounds like since we already know from polls most don't even know where Wales is, I'm ashamed to say.And now I hope I haven't jinxed meself in talking so much about this before it's a reality!