Kevin Macdonald

It came out in 2011.

It was directed by Kevin MacDonald, and it's an adaptation of a historical adventure novel written for kids, a book called The Eagle of the Ninth, written way back in 1954 by the English author Rosemary Sutcliffe.

So the plot of the film follows a Roman centurion, Marcus Flavius Aquila, played by Channing Tatum, who hopes to redeem the family honor by serving nobly in Britain.

His father had been a senior centurion, technically a primus pilus.

So right in the heart of the territory that was once dominated by the Brigantes.

Yeah.

So in an interview we read, director Kevin MacDonald explains this choice by saying that he wants to evoke the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, a decision which in and of itself seems designed to make the audience maybe somewhat uncomfortable with Roman presence in the island, or at least invite them to question whether or not the Romans should be there.

Yeah, I'll point out this was in 2011.

Yes, I've had Sean Rowe talking about the music to Frontier Crucible, which I think I've talked about at the end of last year as one of my films of the year, which is a really great Western.

Well, I've had Oscar winning director Kevin MacDonald on talking about The Runner, his Gal Gadot film.

I've had another sort of Western short film maker on, Robert Camperl.

Talking about a couple of little Western films that he's made, which were very visually impressive.

They never do.

Plus Jasmine Savoy Brown from Yellow Jackets, Eva Victor from Sorry Baby, Zach Cherry from Severance, Dylan Baker, Kevin MacDonald, and Quintessa Swindell.

And I just wanted to say, the movie has queer representation, trans representation, and polyamorous representation, and none of it is there to be punished.

Old slashers punish difference.

And you'll talk with stunt people about this.

And often, I was talking with Kevin MacDonald, another director, last night, and It's this kind of mission creep where suddenly actors become Navy Seals, or the character becomes a Navy Seal in the third act, and they're suddenly doing all this amazing ninja stuff.

And it's like, well, how? I couldn't do that.

I'd be hopeless in that environment.

[laughs]

And he went, "Right, this is the guy that's gonna play Kevin." And then the next thing that happened, Andy Serkis walked in with dreads.

He's the one asking you about the accent.

He was playing a Glaswegian pimp, and David, the director, goes like, "He's the real thing.

It's a great soundtrack on that.

It's the most incredible soundtrack.

But I learned today that Forest Whitaker suggested you to Kevin Macdonald.

I don't think so.