Avalon High | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama Mystery Fantasy Teen |
Based on | Avalon High by Meg Cabot |
Written by | |
Directed by | Stuart Gillard |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | Robert Duncan |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Howard Braunstein Michael Jaffe |
Producers | Janine Dickins Stuart Gillard |
Cinematography | Thomas Burstyn |
Editor | James R. Symons |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | Disney Channel |
Release | November 12, 2010 [1] |
Avalon High is a 2010 American medieval fantasy film released as a Disney Channel Original Movie and starring Gregg Sulkin, Britt Robertson, Joey Pollari, and Devon Graye. The movie is loosely based on the 2005 book of the same name by Meg Cabot. It premiered on November 12, 2010, in the United States, January 22, 2011, in Australia and New Zealand, and January 28, 2011, in the United Kingdom. [1] [2]
Allie Pennington, the daughter of two medieval literature scholars, enrolls at Avalon High and becomes involved in a prophesied re-staging of Arthurian legend. Allie meets various new people who she later discovers are the reincarnations of figures from the legendary Camelot. She befriends two boys: Will, a quarterback and most likely the reincarnation of Arthur, and Miles, who has psychic flashes and is most likely the reincarnation of Merlin. There's also a third boy, Marco—Will's stepbrother—whom Allie believes is the reincarnation of Mordred and determined to kill Arthur (Will), which would send the world into another dark age.
At Avalon High, Allie gets assigned to a project in which Miles becomes her partner. When they are studying together at her house, they receive help from her parents who co-wrote the book which they are doing the project on.
As Allie gets closer to her classmates, she starts to experience visions of King Arthur and becomes better friends with Will. She starts to suspect that the legend of the prophecy is true. She discovers at a party that Jennifer, Will's girlfriend, and Lance, Will's best friend, are having an affair behind Will's back. Allie fears if Will finds out, he would suffer the same fate as King Arthur and meet his downfall. Together, Miles and Allie discover the day King Arthur is prophesied to return.
Will suffers from a blow both in school and at practice that shakes his confidence before the big game, which Will has to win in order to gain a scholarship. Allie tries to tell Will about Jennifer and Lance's affair but is constantly "interrupted", so she enlists the help of Mr. Moore (Allie, Will, Lance, and Miles' medieval history teacher) to protect Will.
On the night of the game Will arrives early to school and sees Jennifer and Lance together and takes off; Allie gives chase. Finding Will at the forest where they had previously spent time together, she tells him that he is King Arthur, but he takes it as a metaphor about him returning to the game. Allie and Miles then attend and watch as Will returns to the game as the prophesied eclipse and meteor shower take place. At half time, Lance apologizes to Will for the affair but Will instead gives his blessing for Lance and Jennifer to be together, forgiving them both. Will then asks to meet Allie after the game, but he disappears. Allie and Miles go in search and Miles uses his psychic power to find him.
Going to the school theater, they find an injured Marco outside and Will inside the theater, again Allie tells him the truth of his identity. Mr. Moore arrives and reveals that he is really Mordred and Marco reveals that his father was actually a member of the Order of the Bear before he died. Ever since he died, Marco has sworn to continue his father's job to protect Arthur (Will), and had been trying to gain Mr. Moore's trust. Mr. Moore (Mordred) then attacks the group. Allie grabs a prop sword to stop Mr. Moore, but it transforms into Excalibur, revealing that she is the real reincarnation of King Arthur. Mr. Moore and Allie duel in an alternate reality, where Will, Marco, Miles (Merlin), and Lance (Lancelot) are also present and fighting. With the help of Merlin, Allie defeats Mordred.
Back in the theater, they are able to escape, and Mr. Moore is "detained" by the security officer after he tries to tell him that Allie is King Arthur and her prop sword was real. Will then rushes off to finish the football game and promises to talk with Allie afterward, and he proceeds to win the game, taking the Knights to state for the first time. Having not seen Allie and Mr. Moore's great battle, Allie's parents remark sadly about how they'll never find Arthur, never realizing that their own daughter is his reincarnation. Miles now embraces his powers and becomes more social which gets him a girlfriend. At the end of the game, Will kisses Allie.
All the characters gather at the round table dressed as their legendary counterparts. The movie closes with Allie riding along the beach with a horse.
Filming took place in Auckland, New Zealand, at Studio West, [3] [4] from May 3 [5] to June 3, 2010. [6] [7] Bethells Beach was used as a location for full-armour battle sequences. [8] Mechnology Visual Effects created 134 visual effects shots for the production.
The film's premiere had 3.8 million viewers. [9]
Guinevere, also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in popular literature in the early 12th century, nearly 700 years after the purported times of Arthur, Guinevere has since been portrayed as everything from a fatally flawed, villainous, and opportunistic traitor to a noble and virtuous lady. Many records of the legend also feature the variably recounted story of her abduction and rescue as a major part of the tale.
Uther Pendragon (Brittonic), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur.
Mordred or Modred is a major figure in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle Annales Cambriae, wherein he and Arthur are ambiguously associated with the Battle of Camlann in a brief entry for the year 537. Medraut's figure seemed to have been regarded positively in the early Welsh tradition and may have been related to that of Arthur's son. As Modredus, Mordred was depicted as Arthur's traitorous nephew and a legitimate son of King Lot in the pseudo-historical work Historia Regum Britanniae, which then served as the basis for the following evolution of the legend from the 12th century. Later variants most often characterised Mordred as Arthur's villainous bastard son, born of an incestuous relationship with his half-sister, the queen of Lothian or Orkney named either Anna, Orcades, or Morgause. The accounts presented in the Historia and most other versions include Mordred's death at Camlann, typically in a final duel, during which he manages to mortally wound his own slayer, Arthur. Mordred is usually a brother or half-brother to Gawain; however, his other family relations, as well as his relationships with Arthur's wife Guinevere, vary greatly.
The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine, a priestess fighting to save her Celtic religion in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life. The epic is focused on the lives of Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and other women of the Arthurian legend.
Morgause is a popular variant of the figure of the Queen of Orkney, an Arthurian legend character also known by various other names and appearing in different forms of her archetype. She is notably the mother of Gawain and often also of Mordred, both key players in the story of her brother King Arthur and his downfall.
Merlin is a 1998 two-part television miniseries starring Sam Neill as Merlin, recounting the wizard's life in the mythic history of Britain. Loosely adapted from the legendary tales of Camelot, the plot adds the antagonistic Queen Mab and expands Merlin's backstory before the birth of King Arthur.
Meggin Patricia Cabot is an American novelist. She has written and published over 50 novels of young adult and adult fiction and is best known for her young adult series The Princess Diaries, which was later adapted by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films. Cabot has been the recipient of numerous book awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice, and many others. She has also had number-one New York Times bestsellers, and more than 25 million copies of her books are in print across the world.
Guinevere Jones is a fantasy television series and a series of four novels created by Elizabeth Stewart. It revolves around the adventures of the title character as she uses magic to fight evil, while at the same time dealing with problems and difficulties of high school. The show debuted in Canada on May 4, 2002, on YTV and ten days later in Australia. It ran for 26 episodes over two seasons.
The Legend of Prince Valiant is an animated television series based on the Prince Valiant comic strip created by Hal Foster. Set in the time of King Arthur, it is a family-oriented adventure show about an exiled prince who goes on a quest to become one of the Knights of the Round Table. He begins his quest after having a dream about Camelot and its idealistic New Order. This television series originally aired on The Family Channel for a total run of 65 episodes.
Avalon High is a young adult novel by Meg Cabot, published in 2005 targeted for age 12 and up. The book merges a high school setting with elements of medieval fantasy, namely Arthurian legend.
The Mists of Avalon is a 2001 television miniseries based on the 1983 novel of the same title by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Produced by American cable channel TNT, adapted by Gavin Scott, and directed by Uli Edel, the series retells Arthurian legend from the perspectives of Morgan le Fay and other women of the tale. The first episode was the highest-rated original film on basic cable in the summer of 2001.
The Knight of the Sacred Lake is a historical fantasy novel by Rosalind Miles. It was first published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster in the UK followed by Crown Books in the US. The book is a retelling of the Arthurian legend and follows the lives of Queen Guinevere, consort of King Arthur and her struggles with the king's nephews Agravain and Gawain; the queen is torn between her love for her husband, her land, and her lover, Lancelot. The book was part of a series, The Guinevere Novels, and was followed by The Child of the Holy Grail. Reviewing the book, Publishers Weekly described it as "a lush, feminist take on the English epic".
Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur is a historical fiction novel by English writer Bernard Cornwell, first published in the UK in 1997. It is the third and final book in The Warlord Chronicles series, following The Winter King and Enemy of God. The trilogy tells the legend of King Arthur through the eyes of his follower Derfel Cadarn.
Gregg Sulkin is an English actor. He made his television debut in the 2002 Doctor Zhivago mini-series. He later starred in the 2006 British film Sixty Six, and subsequently appeared in the Disney Channel comedy series As the Bell Rings and Wizards of Waverly Place. In 2010 he starred in the Disney Channel television film Avalon High. He also appeared in the television special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex. He starred on MTV's show Faking It as Liam Booker from 2014 until its cancellation in 2016. He also appeared on Pretty Little Liars as Ezra's brother, Wesley "Wes" Fitzgerald. In 2016 he starred in the role of Sam Fuller in the horror-thriller film Don't Hang Up. He starred as Chase Stein in the TV show Runaways, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."
The fourth and final season of Wizards of Waverly Place aired on Disney Channel from November 12, 2010 to January 6, 2012. The Russo children, Alex, Justin, and Max Russo continue to compete to become the leading wizard in their magical family and begin to make difficult decisions about their futures. Maria Canals Barrera and David DeLuise co-star as their parents and Jennifer Stone co-stars as Alex's best friend, Harper Finkle. This is the second season of the series to be broadcast in high-definition.
Christopher (Chris) Tavarez is an American actor, model, and athlete. After modeling as a young child, his parents were encouraged by scouts to pursue the world of acting for their son. His first television appearance was on the Discovery Kids reality show, Endurance. He appeared on the 4th season when he was 12 in the show, he made himself seem like a huge threat, which other contestants took seriously, although he was eliminated after the first elimination. Chris's talent was quickly recognized by talent agent, Joy Pervis, who also discovered child stars Dakota Fanning, Kyle Massey, and Lucas Till. He stayed busy working in the Atlanta market booking commercials, print, television, and films. Chris has been cast in several movies, including Big Momma's House 2, and he has a recurring role on Tyler Perry's television series, Meet the Browns. Chris's big break came when he was cast for the lead role of Lance in the Disney Channel original movie, Avalon High.
The Winter King is a British historical fiction television series based on Bernard Cornwell's trilogy of novels The Warlord Chronicles, starring Iain De Caestecker as Arthur Pendragon. The series premiered on MGM+ in the United States on 20 August 2023 and on ITVX in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2023. In September 2024, the series was cancelled after one season.