tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

In Part 2 of our 20 Most Anticipated Period Films, we're listing down another 10 up and coming period movies. But this time, a lot of the movies' release dates are still unavailable.

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However, these period flicks have generated a lot of buzz and obviously, there's a lot of excitement in their upcoming release. With stars such as Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, James McAvoy, among others, how can they not create excitement?

More about these flicks, stills and their trailers after the jump!

# 10 - Black Death
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Timeline: The 14th Century
Director: Christopher Smith
Stars: Sean Bean, Carice van Houten, Eddie Redmayne
The Plot: In medieval England fallen under the shadow of the Black Death, a young monk called Osmund is charged in leading a fearsome knight, Ulric and his group of mercenaries to a remote marsh. Their quest is to hunt down a necromancer - someone able to bring the dead back to life. Torn between his love of God and the love of a young woman, Osmund discovers the necromancer, a mysterious beauty called Langiva. After Langiva reveals her Satanic identity and offers Osmund his hearts desire, the horror of his real journey begins.

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Buzz: Reports from Digital Spy featuring the film's director Christopher Smith:

Christopher Smith has revealed details of his upcoming movie Black Death, which has recently finished filming. Speaking to Digital Spy, the Triangle and Severance director described the project as "a medieval 'guys on a mission' movie where Sean [Bean] and a group of knights ride into this village during the bubonic plague to find out why this one village has been spared the plague." "There are rumours that there's a necromancer there who has a deal with the Devil," he continued. "It's all about how medieval people think. It's all very real. It's not supernatural, but you think it is." Smith, whose first foray into the horror genre was the acclaimed Creep, added that Black Death "should be coming into the cinemas in either February or October. There's basically a window [the studio] want to hit to keep it in the winter." [ read more ]

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# 9 - Glorious 30 - ( Release date: November 20, 2009 UK)

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Timeline: 1939 in London, England
Director: Stephen Poliakoff
Stars: Romola Garai, Julie Christie, Juno Temple, Eddie Redmayne
Plot: 1939 is set between present-day London and the idyllic British countryside in the time before the beginning of the Second World War. At a time of uncertainty and high tension, the story revolves around the formidable Keyes family, who are keen to uphold and preserve their very traditional way of life. The eldest sibling Anne is a budding young actress who is in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence, but her seemingly perfect life begins to dramatically unravel when she stumbles across secret recordings of the pro-appeasement movement. While trying to discover the origin of these recordings, dark secrets are revealed which lead to the death of a great friend. As war breaks out Anne discovers the truth and flees to London to try to confirm her suspicions, but she is caught and imprisoned and only then does she finally begin to discover how badly she has been betrayed.

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Buzz: Read more about the movie in tMF's film focus article.

# 8 - Barbarian Princess

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# 7 - Solomon Kane - (September 2009 - Austin Fantastic Film Fest)

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Timeline: The 17th century
Director: Michael J. Bassett
Stars: James Purefoy, Jason Flemyng, Rachel Hurd-Wood
The Plot: Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms. His adventures, published mostly in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, often take him from Europe to the jungles of Africa and back.

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# 6 - Red Cliff -  (Release date: November 20, 2009)

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Timeline: The 3rd century in China
Director: John Woo
Stars: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang
The Plot: In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale, led by the Prime Minister, himself. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. Numerous battles of strength and wit ensued, both on land and on water, eventually culminating in the battle of Red Cliff. During the battle, two thousand ships were burned, and the course of Chinese history was changed forever.

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