John Rhys-Davies Talks In the Name of the King

January 11, 2008 | By: John Gaudiosi

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While the actor's roles gained him acclaim with gamers, Rhys-Davies talks about his first venture into a movie based on a video game.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Thanks to his portrayal of Gimli in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, actor John Rhys-Davies is very popular with gamers and the sci-fi fantasy crowd. His latest film, In the Name of the King, is based on the popular video game from Gas Powered Games, Dungeon Siege. The actor talked about this role and the influx of games heading to the big screen while on the set of the epic fantasy film.

GameDaily BIZ: What attracted you to this movie?

John Rhys-Davies : I'll be honest with you. The builders have not finished my house and I was going mad and I thought, this could be fun. Who else is in it? Burt's in it? Oh, I'm on. Lets go and see if we can make a success out of this one. Do I regret that? No, not at all, I think this could do well.

BIZ: What can you tell us about the character you play in this film?

I play a wonderful character called Merick who is the king's magis, which means magician. I'm also the king's friend and confidante. We've grown up together, we've made a kingdom together and we're very close.

BIZ:What is the film about?

Basically, I think this film is about becoming a king and how important it is to become a king. And if the script doesn't say it, what it should say is -- "we may call a king by different names, we may have different ways of choosing our kings, but until men become more honest and moral, we will always need kings and it is important that we get the right king." And for that you can read president, or whatever.

"[Dungeon Siege] comes from a game and it's very hard to make a translation to build a script from a game... The challenge, of course, is to keep the core audience who are fans of the game, and win the other audience who don't really give a damn about games "

BIZ:Can you talk about your experience during the shoot in Vancouver?

Well, to begin with, it's Canada. Canada is wonderful. The people are wonderful. They speak English too, which is a great help. The cast is terrific. I'm just about to do a scene with Ray Liotta, who's a fantastic actor whom I have admired for years. Burt (Reynolds) is a legend, of course, and there are so many really super younger actors in this like Jason Stathom and Leelee Sobieski. It's a joy to work them all.

BIZ: Can you discuss the fantasy aspects of this film, especially for the fans out there from The Lord of the Rings?

Dungeon Siege comes from a different genre. It comes from a game and it's very hard to make a translation to build a script from a game. So you really almost have to start from scratch. The Lord of the Rings starts with a tremendous advantage. It's been one of the most read books in every language for nearly 50 years, so it's not really comparing like with like.

The challenge, of course, is to keep the core audience who are fans of the game, and win the other audience who don't really give a damn about games. I suspect that we're going to take a very interesting stab towards doing it.