This will be as part of the after hours program ran through the autumn, other speakers in include Chris Ryan.

It will be the fifth novel in the Saxon chronicles saga, The book tells the story of the final assaults on King Alfred’s Wessex in the 9th Century a.d. and uses the main character, Uhtred Ragnarson, sometimes known as Uhtred Uhtredson who, born in Northumberland is captured and raised by the Danes.

The Danes have invaded Great Britain and all but one of the English kingdoms has been defeated, that of King Alfred. No news as yet of nay new release of a new Richard Sharpe Book.

London-based Independent Film Co. owned by Luc Roeg’s has employed Michael Hirst to adapt the book, Michael has gained acclaim with creating the Tudors series, writing the screenplays for the films Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

The book has done remarkably well selling over 200,000 copies in the first 3 months in the UK and spending over 4 weeks on the New York times best sellers list. It is not he first of Bernard Cornwells books to be adapted with his Richard Sharpe character having over 15 TV films made, 12 of them based (sometimes much to loosely.) on his books set in the Napoleonic era .

To this point the Battle of Agincourt has had little film exposure outside remakes of Henry V, but as a battle where are much smaller weaker English army butchered a much larger and better equipped French army, its believed close on 10,000 French died with a loss of only 112 English casualties. It is also noted as being the battle which brought about the death of chivalry, and is belied to of been the source of the English two fingered salute.

The film is budgeted for a very modest $35 million, and is due to start shooting in 2011, locations and cast at this point are not known.

It is currently unknown if the film will be due to be dubbed for a French release, but somehow we doubt it will do good business on the French side of the channel. We are also hoping for a film release date of St Crispin’s day which was the date of the battle in 1415, but that may be hard to do.

Sean Bean who plays Richard Sharpe in the TVs eries, and who  also played Boromir in Lord of the Rings has been reported to have been cast in the lead role in the HBO planned series ‘A games of Thrones’ based on George RR Martin popular ‘Song of Fire and Ice’ series of fantasy books.

No date has been set for the pilot as yet, and there is no promise that HBO will commit to a full series either, but with an impressive cast list headed up by Bean, this project is definitely being taken seriously.

He has been cast in role of Eddard Stark a Lord who is pressure to act as advisor to the ruthless royal family. Other cast members confirmed for the Pilot include Kit Harrington, Jack Gleeson, Harry Lloyd, and Peter Dinklage

The show is been adapted and produced by David Benioff and Dan Weiss. David has suggested a ‘crappy’ tagline for the project could be, “The Sopranos in Middle-earth”, which can only set the imagination racing. With plot elements that will contain spot of conspiracy, incest, child murder, corruption, conspiracy, a rival claimant to the throne across the sea, the still-festering legacy of a civil war 20 years before, a growing threat in the North and did I mention conspiracy? We should see a show which is far darker than Sean Beans Previous fantasy adoptions.

Production will begin in Northern Ireland in October 2009, at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast and has the support of the northern Irish government. It is also likely that the BBC will have a financial involvement in the same way they did in HBO’s Rome series.

Sean Bean sprung to fame as Major Richard Sharpe, the ITV series of Sharpe TV films in the early 90’s, Was made world famous as Boromir in the Lord of the Rings films, but has also stared in numerous other Hollywood films such as Ronin, Patriot Games and Troy.