It appears that filmmaker Guy Ritchie has firmed up King Arthur as his next project.  We learned a few months ago that Ritchie was looking to direct a new version of the King Arthur tale at Warner Bros., envisioned as a tentpole fantasy epic that would span six feature films.  There’s no telling if the franchise will indeed stretch to six films, but today Warner Bros. announced a July 22, 2016 release date (in 2D and 3D, naturally) for the first step, the Ritchie-helmed King Arthur.  Hit the jump for more on the project.

King Arthur

Warner Bros. has been developing a King Arthur epic for some time, and the studio came extremely close a couple of years ago with David Dobkin (The Change-Up) at the helm and Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman in the leads.  Just as production was looking to gear up, however, the studio pulled the plug over budget concerns, and it’s been in limbo ever since.

Ritchie, on the other hand, has been keen on making a King Arthur film for years, and it appears that the stars have aligned and he’ll be bringing the project to fruition at Warner Bros. with a script by Joby Harold (Awake).  The film currently has the July 2016 weekend all to itself, though an untitled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sequel is slated for release the following weekend with Matt Reeves returning to direct.

There’s no word on how quickly production will begin on King Arthur, but Ritchie is currently in the midst of post-production on the spy pic The Man from U.N.C.L.E.—also for Warner Bros.—starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer.  Somewhat inexplicably, the studio has slated that film for an unceremonious release on January 16, 2015.  With this King Arthur news, though, it's becoming clear that a third Sherlock Holmes film is a ways off—if it ever happens at all.