Pillars of the Earth Movie

What? Apparently I have been living underneath a huge ignorance shaped rock and had absolutely no idea that The Pillars of the Earth was being made into a movie!! And by movie I mean eight-hour-made-for-TV-movie. Which is almost the same thing, yes? So today when I received an email about it from Oprah I was mighty excited.


A couple of years ago I lived in the UK and my two besties came over to visit and do a bit of Euro-travel themselves. While I stayed in the UK and worked they went to cathedral upon cathedral in Europe upon which Bestie 1 said to Bestie 2 "Have you read The Pillars of the Earth?". This occurred in every single cathedral. And church. And temple. Pretty much any form of religious building. Now poor Bestie 2 was becoming rather exasperated with these questions as (as she had previously stipulated) no, she hadn't read Pillars of the Earth. Then they came back to the UK and we went to St Paul's Cathedral. What do you think was the first thing I said to Bestie 2?


Oops.


So anyway for those who don't know, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is one of those 'Big Books' that I was talking about previously. It is set in the twelfth century and focuses on the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge in England. It takes years and years and therefore this book is a sprawling masterpiece that spans several years and encompasses all things that are loved about the middle ages: knights, monks, royalty, scandal, witches, draw bridges and chain mail. It is, in a word, an epic book.


What do you think of the casting?

Matthew McFadyen as Prior Philip

Rufus Sewell as Tom Builder

Natalia Worner as Ellen

Eddie Redmayne as Jack (ridiculously appropriate name!)

Hayley Atwell as Aliena

I wonder if this will ever cross the sea to Australia? It looks a bit exciting!!


Pictures from here