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Now that's a kind of Devil worship I could enjoy...
In my opinion, they should adapt Ivanhoe. No nonsense, just an adaptation of the book.
The issue with adapting Ivanhoe is that you have your hero lying down in bed for about half the novel. And often the supporting characters take center stage. The ending is also anticlimactic. And don't get me wrong: I looove the novel.
Wikipedia says
"Over Cedric's renewed protests, Athelstane pledges his homage to King Richard and urges Cedric to allow Rowena to marry Ivanhoe, to which Cedric finally agrees. Soon after this reconciliation, Ivanhoe receives word from Isaac beseeching him to fight on Rebecca's behalf. Ivanhoe, riding day and night, arrives in time for the trial by combat; however, both horse and man are exhausted, with little chance of victory. The two knights make one charge at each other with lances, Bois-Guilbert appearing to have the advantage. Ivanhoe and his horse go down, but Bois-Guilbert also falls though barely touched. Ivanhoe quickly gets up to finish the fight with his sword, but Bois-Guilbert does not rise and dies a victim of his own contending passions. Ivanhoe and Rowena marry and live a long and happy life together..."
Whats wrong with that?
If you feel a longer, more exciting, battle with Bois-Guilbert at the end is required, that's only a minor change.
As for the lying around in bed bit, I'll agree that it's less than ideal, but there are many films that feature an ensemble cast of heros, it doesn't have to be entirely "Ivanhoe centric" to work as movie.
"The Great Escape", "The Magnificent Seven", "Star Wars"... "The Fast & The Furious" franchise
Ivanhoe (1952) Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders, Joan Fontaine
Ivanhoe (1958) Roger Moore TV series
Ivanhoe (1982) Anthony Andrews, Sam Neil, Olivia Hussey, John Rhys-Davies
Ivanhoe (1997) BBC 6 part miniseries
Dark Knight (2000-02) UK/NZ TV series, Ivanhoe in the style of Hercules / Xena Warrior Princess
https://filmsofthefifties.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Roger-Moore-as-Ivanhoe-1958-560x758.jpg
Moore insisted on undertaking much of the stunt work himself, resulting in several injuries including three cracked ribs from a fight scene and being knocked unconscious when a battleaxe hit his helmeted skull.
They already have. The 1952 MGM film is very good, and I enjoyed it more than the book, which was a bit of a slog.
Ivanhoe was the least interesting character in Scott's original, and was offstage for too much of the story while characters like King Richard gallivanted around. The screenwriters fixed this by giving several the King's adventures to Ivanhoe. The film also improved on the treatment of the Jewish characters, and it would harder to find a more beautiful Rebecca than the young Elizabeth Taylor. George Sanders was a very fine Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert as well.
The action sequences--a tournament joust, all-out castle siege, and a knightly duel to the death--were beautifully handled by Yakima Canutt. And the trial scene is an interesting product of Blacklist-era Hollywood. Two of the (uncredited) screenwriters, Waldo Salt and Marguerite Roberts, were subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities while working on the script, and shortly afterward blacklisted. Waldo Salt gave the film a paralell to McCarthyism by turning the book's trial scene into a demagogic bad-faith attempt by Prince John to use anti-semitism to smear his political enemies.
The film looks absolutely beautiful on Blu-Ray, and while I enjoyed some of the later, more faithful adaptations--including the 1982 TV film with James Mason as Issac, and the 1997 mini-series--the MGM version remains the definitive one, in the same way that no Robin Hood film will ever supplant the Errol Flynn version.
I was of course referring to the "duel" with Bois-Guilbert, not the conclusion. Ivanhoe is pretty much an "ensemble cast" novel, but the fact that the hero and titled character spends half the novel recovering from a wound still is a problem, or at least a complication for an adaptation. I have never seen any adaptation, except a cartoon that was serialised and thus very loosely based on the source material. I don't know how they solved the aforementioned issues, but from what I understand, even the most faithful ones have Ivanhoe and Bois-Guilbert fight to the death. It's a very 19th century way of bringing out a resolution.
@Revelator I forgot about that: the original novel has a lot of antisemitic overtones. But at least the Jews depicted in it are never outright villainous and Rebecca is seen in a very positive light. Personally, I far prefer her to Rowena.
Anyway, aren't we getting off topic? Personal suggestion: a "Robin Hood" franchise, tv series or film series (or both), with an Ivanhoe spinoff. Could it work?