On SciFi (UK) this weekend: Sword of Xanten aka Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

[dianeduane]

For those of you on the European side of the water who haven’t seen it as yet: SciFi UK  is showing Sword of Xanten (this being the goofy name that Channel 4 in the UK, like a terminally confused fairy godmother, wished on The Ring / Die Nibelungen / Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King) this Sunday and Monday.

Kristanna Loken is absolutely worth watching in this as Queen Brunnhild. And there is, of course, the story: a somewhat-reworked but not too damaged version of the great German epic poem the Nibelungenlied.  (The trouble with the Ring mythos is picking and choosing which bits you’re going to keep and which you’re not. Our producers chose to avoid the Wagnerian additions to the story, hewing closer to the storyline as set out in the poem., though we also drew on the Eddaic sources for some pieces of business.) 

We had fun writing this. If you have time, pop a beverage and sit back and watch Brunnhild whale on Siegfried with that spear. (And chuck poor King Gunter out of bed before the real trouble starts.) Watch the dragon engage in mortal battle with Bennu Fürmann’s wig. (Those wigs never worked on the poor man.)  And watch South Africa look really amazingly like the Rhine valley…

Tags: Sword+of+Xanten, Siegfried, Brunnhild, SciFi, Sci+Fi, UK, Ring, Nibelungen

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I _REALLY_ want to get SCI-FI UK now.

Instead of the drektastic lame-monster-movie fake-reality-crackpot WWE wrassling infested pustulence we are now cursed with in the US.


Thunderbirds. We could have had Thunderbirds.

[lunalovegoddess.livejournal.com]

*seconds that emotion* It's a long-standing joke in our house, that wrestling on Sci-Fi is a male soap opera. As for the Sci-Fi original movies, we pop up some kettle corn, grab diet sodas, and provide our own Mystery Science Theater-style commentary.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Were I in a household with at least one other person who was interested in riffing bad movies I would probably do that.


They certainly rerun them enough to craft a finely tuned hatred and some really good lines.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Hold on, Sci-Fi channel in the US shows wrestling? I mean human wrestling, not Klingons or whatever? Isn't that against their charter, false advertising, or something like that?

(Mind you, Classic FM radio has taken to playing jazz several evenings a week. So much for their boast of "the UK's only 100% classical music station". At least they haven't dropped to pop like BBC Radio 3, the supposed home of classical music...)

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

I still think it's better when treated as a reason to have a drinking game. Yeah Kristanna Loken is excellent, but I noticed you strategically failed to note the I-can't-believe-I'm-seeing-this flailing of the ludicrous Fabio-guy playing Siggy (I'll watch for the dragon and the hair next time though). When I pitch it as well-written but campily-acted; hey let's drink!, it goes over most successfully (here in America anyway).

[Edited because I skipped half my thought]

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

(Interestingly, most of my social group is familiar with the Wagner Ring, and we always wind up having long conversations later about the huge numbers of major differences. So it's a good conversation-starter too.)

[caiteydid.livejournal.com]

Hi, this is totally off topic, but I've sent you a couple emails and can't imagine what in the world my school's network is doing to prevent them from sending.

Anyway, I never did get that book, although this time at least I remembered to pay for it. :P I think it may have been only about a month since I sent the money, so would that just be normal shipping time from Ireland? I certainly don't know, having never gotten anything from overseas.

I /do/ wish we got that channel here. Maybe we'll get it months later like we do with all the really good shows.

[cuddles-batcave.livejournal.com]

TV Total wasn't very flattering in it's review for XANTEN but I'm looking forward to catching it from the beginning.

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

Shooed the kids off to bed early and settled down with the TV, some Doritos and a pint of red wine.

Wonderful scenary, great dragon, agree about the hair - V. silly.

It did do one thing good for me, it helped ream out the bad memories of watching Beowulf the night before with all it's 'to hell with the plot, look at our cool 3D FX...'