Last year, legendary actor Peter O’Toole announced his retirement, thus ending a prolific career that spanned over five decades. Before the 81-year-old star leaves the business for good, however, he’s remerged to work on two projects, the first of which, Katherine of Alexandria, was recently completed. As it readies for distribution, an official trailer for the film hit the web to showcase one of the master thespian’s final performances.
The historical epic from first-time writer/director Michael Redwood chronicles the story of the first woman to denounce Rome’s gods. A beloved religious figure, the real Katherine converted many to Christianity before being martyred on a wheel of spikes and then decapitated by pagan Emperor Maxentius in 333 AD. O’Toole plays Gallus, a palace orator who sides with the young disciple.
The idea of an inexperienced director taking on a project of this scale makes me wary, a feeling that’s heightened by the fact that lead actress Nicole Keniheart has also never made a film before. In terms of quality, the trailer suggests more of a History Channel special than a well-produced drama, complete with bad costumes and poorly choreographed battle sequences. For O’Toole’s sake, I hope the film exceeds my assumptions. See trailer below:
Katherine of Alexandria will release sometime in 2014.
Does the film look like a worthy epic or an epic disaster? Would you see it for O’Toole?