Spielberg plans King Arthur mini-series

Steven Spielberg is to produce a big budget TV mini series about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, it was reported today.

The ET director is close to agreeing a deal with US network HBO for the eight episode drama depicting the life of the legendary medieval English monarch.

It follows the success of the Second World War TV series Band of Brothers, which Spielberg produced with Tom Hanks.

David Leland, who helped write and direct Band of Brothers, is also in negotiations to write several of the Arthur episodes, including the first part, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Arthur will mix the mythology of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table with documented accounts of real people from the time believed to have served as prototypes for the legends.

Details of the cast have yet to be revealed.

Richard Harris played the medieval king in the 1967 musical Camelot. Helen Mirren and Nigel Terry starred in the acclaimed 1981 drama Excalibur.