Arthur the King

This story is about a friendship found with conviction. Everything began with Mikael Lindnor an adventurer racer that has dedicated his whole life to this sport and is going to participate in his last race. He joined his team again to travel to Dominican Republic to be part of the competition and win, that is the goal. The competition start and the team has many challenges to face since first all the competition is in the rain forest of the Dominican Republic, the team will have to cross 400 miles running, hiking and kayaking all to achieve their goal that is winning the Adventure Racing World Championship but in certain point of the race a stray dog approached to Lindnor and he gave him some meatballs for him to eat and since that moment something unreal happen the dog start following Lindnor and his team during the whole race, helping the team in really critical moments making him the fifth member of the team, was incredible how the dog continue in the race while the team passed for difficulty where a dog supposedly couldn’t be, that animal was special, during the journey the team decided to name the dog Arthur the King, Arthur stayed through all that journey and even in the most difficult part of the competition were the team has to cross a river in kayak Arthur continue by their side. This is a story of understanding, courage and acceptance that will show how something small as a meatball can be transformed into something big as a real love between humans and dogs.

The star-studded cast includes Mark Wahlberg as Mikael, the desperate adventure racer seeking one last chance to win. He is joined by Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman, Bear Grylls as himself, the host and star of “Man vs. Wild,” and Paul Guilfoyle. This film features a mix of experienced actors and newcomers, making it a dynamic ensemble.

Simon Cellan Jones career began as a production assistant in the mid 1980 with the series Edge of Darkness after that Jones decided to become a director thing that he achieve and through his life gained credit and acclaimed in the British television in production such as Cracker 1993 and Our Friends in the North 1996, he also received a nomination at the British Academy Film Award for his first featured film Some Voices of 2000. The director Simon Cellan Jones is the director of Arthur the King bringing a story that will go deep into the audience heart.

Arthur the King is a real story about a sweedish adventure racing team and an ecuatorian dog that met during the 2014 Adventure Racing World Championship, one of the member of the team Mikael Lindnord gave a meatball to the dog and since that moment he stayed with the sweedish team through the whole competition and facing the challenges in every part of the race, Arthur conquer every step until the point that he and the team reach the goal and become a team of five members at the end of the race, the journey of Arthur after the racing didn’t end there because the Mikael decided to adopt him and take him to Sweden and him give a better life, the dog travel but expend 120 days in quarantine because needed to recover for all the injures and infections that the had but after that he finally get to his new home with Mikael and his family, thanks to Arthur, Mikeal decided to create a foundation that work in favor of stray dogs in Ecuador. This is really a fascinating story about the life of a dog that changed the life of four people demonstrating strength, resistance, loyalty, and a friendship and gained notoriety around the world for the surrealistic of the story a dog that follow a racing team after he received a meatball, definitely the journey of Arthur and Mikel is full of inspiration.

The most common critic that this movie has received is more about the people that mention why the movie is not place in Ecuador or why is not even mention that Arthur is from Ecuador but keep in mind that the movie is located in Dominican Republic, despite that comments the movie has been well received by the critic stating that is that inspirational and heartwarming not only for being a true story but also for a happy ending that the Arthur had in his life. A story that is expected to receive more praise for the critics and also for the audience.

The creation of Arthur the King and the work to bring this story to the big screen face some challenges, at the begging the changing of director at initially Baltasar Kormakur was set to direct the movie but for scheduling conflicts couldn’t take the project making Simon Cellan Jones the new director, the cast of the movie was confirmed with talents such as Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Ali Suliman and Rob Collins. A big twist for was the distribution of the movie that at first Paramount Players was the responsible but in June 2020 Lionsgate took its place. There was also a twist regarding the location that was planned to be on Puerto Rico but it ends on the Dominican Republic and starting the filming in January 2021, despite all those changes and challenges about director and locations the production overcame every obstacles and are bringing an inspirational story that the audience will enjoy it.

Is really incredible how people and animals can created unbreakable bonds that last for ever. Mikael and his team never though that they will met an amazing dog in one of they competition and will ending love him, adopted him and took him to live in Sweden with him, the story of a dog that became the fifth member of a team due to fact that took every obstacle and reached the finish line regardless of having won the race or not because at the end they gained a loyal friend. Definitely a story that will touch hearts and probably is one of many inspirational stories that haven’t been told but in case of Arthur the King is a journey that audience needs to meet.