The real-life Arthur passed away just weeks before filming began.
One heroic hound’s story has been immortalized. Lionsgate’s Arthur the King chronicled the true story of Mikael Lindnord and his canine companion throughout a 700-kilometer adventure race. Portrayed as Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg), the Simon Cellan Jones-directed picture picks up with the lead adventure racer on his last attempt to complete a course. This last ditch effort is propelled by Arthur, a stray dog that accompanies the four-man team throughout the Dominican Republic (changed from the real life location of Ecuador).
While the film had been in the works for some time, it received a newfound purpose just weeks before going into production. One month ahead of the shoot, the real-life Arthur passed away from a malignant tumor.
“Thank you for asking,” Lindnord responded to ComicBook.com’s question about how Arthur the King‘s “why” changed after Arthur’s passing. “I think my why for this was that Arthur has a purpose, and now we can see the purpose. I raced for 19 years to meet him. The thing that we see here is that Arthur is a hero for other Arthurs. I think that’s the main question of this movie, is that next time you pass an Arthur, maybe that’s your Arthur.”
The tender, love and care that the creative team put into the project also increased tenfold once it was known that this was going to be a posthumous picture.
“I saw how genuinely affected Mikael was,” Jones added. “I mean, it happened shortly before we started shooting. Mikael called me. For a moment he was very destabilized and wondering what the point of everything was, but as he said earlier, his motto is you don’t give up. Ever. It renewed his purpose, I think, and therefore I picked that up as well. I think it became even more important to get the film as right as we could.”
Arthur The King is available on digital now on Amazon Video and iTunes.
