Paramount Teaming With Medieval Times On New Family Comedy; Eric Appel Directing From Script By Blaise Hemingway

EXCLUSIVE: Medieval Times, the family-friendly dinner theater company, is in early development with Paramount on a live-action, four-quadrant, family comedy, Deadline has learned.

A recent pitch sale has resulted in Eric Appel‘s attachment to direct from a script to be written by Blaise Hemingway. Blending fantasy, adventure, and heart, the story is set against the backdrop of the Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament show, an immersive live theater experience that has remained North America’s most popular dinner attraction since 1983.

The logline: When a struggling employee at the Orlando Medieval Times accidentally unleashes a real 9th-century knight, along with an ancient evil necromancer, he has to team up with the feral warrior to save the castle, then the world, and finally win the respect he’s always craved.

John Davis and Chris Bender will produce the film, with John Fox, Jeremy Stein, Jake Weiner and Jake Wagner exec producing alongside Perico Montaner, President and CEO of Medieval Times. Attempts to get a Medieval Times film off the ground go back to 2013, when as we reported exclusively, Bender’s former outfit Benderspink teamed with Todd Garner’s Broken Road to lock down rights.

Medieval Times is a live entertainment experience where guests sit in color-coded sections supporting rival kingdoms, watching knights perform mounted combat, jousting, stunt riding and sword fighting, while enjoying a medieval-themed meal. While the franchise’s most famous location is the one situated near Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California — established in 1986 — the company’s roots go back to 1960s Spain, where José Montaner established a medieval-themed dinner-and-entertainment venue, drawing on his family’s claimed connections to the noble Rocabertí family of Peralada.

Medieval Times expanded to North America in 1983, when the Spanish investment group Manver opened a location in Kissimmee, Florida, near Walt Disney World. In the decades since, the franchise has further grown with locations across the country and beyond, entertaining more than 72 million guests.

Medieval Times’ Buena Park castle featured prominently in The Cable Guy, Ben Stiller’s 1996 dark comedy starring Jim Carrey. The franchise has also been either referenced or featured in everything from Garden State to Friends, Cake Boss, Hell’s Kitchen and Saturday Night Live.

Appel is known for directing Daniel Radcliffe in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which won the People’s Choice Award – Midnight Madness Award at TIFF and brought him his first Emmy. More recently, he directed the TriStar family comedy The Breadwinner starring comedian Nate Bargatze. He is repped by WME, Artists First, and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis.

Hemingway is a Massachusetts-born writer and producer who began his career in the Disney Writers’ Program and at Paramount Animation. He previously penned Clifford the Big Red Dog for Paramount, Totems for Universal and Mandeville, and the action-comedy Vampires vs. the Bronx for Broadway Video on Netflix. Earlier in his career, he adapted The Gates for Michael De Luca and Amblin, as well as H.E.R.B.I.E. for Jason Reed and Disney+. He is repped by UTA and TFC Management.

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