Video Interview: Duncan Kenworthy, Producer of THE EAGLE

By Matt Holmes /

Kevin MacDonald's Roman actioner The Eagle is finally released in the U.K. today and looks to be the top choice of the week's new releases. The movie tells the story of a young Roman officer (Channing Tatum) who alongside a slave he has freed (Jamie Bell), seeks out to recover the lost Roman eagle standard of his father's legion in Northern Britain. The Eagle is the second high profile release in a year centered around the infamous Ninth Roman legion after Neil Marshall's Centurion but this one is adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff's excellent adventure novel The Eagle of the Ninth, a tale I've loved ever since I covered it in school. Obsessed With Film's Mike Edwards recently sat down with the film's Oscar nominated producer Duncan Kenworthy, best known for bringing the Richard Curtis rom-coms Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually to the screen but has dipped his toes into something decidedly different here. Learn how The Eagle was brought to life, why the movie appeals to both men and woman (despite no females appearing in the film), why it shouldn't be seen as a sequel to Gladiator and maybe not as an epic at all...The Eagle is a movie that's very much been on my radar for sometime now, especially as director Kevin MacDonald is quietly crafting a fascinating filmography - this being his third feature film after The Last King of Scotland and State of Play. The Eagle is released in the U.K. today.