"The Falcon": The greatest historical epic never made. The true story of a hunted prince who survived his family's massacre, fled across a continent, and conquered a kingdom.
Hear me out. I'm trying to outline a historical epic, and I cannot believe Hollywood hasn't touched this story yet.
It’s essentially Gladiator meets Game of Thrones, but it’s 100% real. The subject is Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Emirate of Cordoba in the 8th century. His life story has a perfect three-act cinematic structure built into it, complete with assassinations, narrow escapes, and brutal revenge.
Here is the pitch broken down into how the movie would play out:
Act I: The Massacre and the River
The year is 750 CE. The Umayyad Dynasty, which rules the Islamic Empire from Damascus, is violently overthrown by a rival faction, the Abbasids. The Abbasids invite the surviving Umayyad royals to a "reconciliation banquet." It’s a trap (essentially the original Red Wedding). They slaughter everyone.
Abd al-Rahman, a 19-year-old prince, gets wind of it just in time and flees with his brother and a loyal Greek freedman. The Abbasid death squads hunt them down to the banks of the Euphrates River. The soldiers promise them safety if they return. Abd al-Rahman refuses and swims for it, but his brother trusts the soldiers, turns back, and is beheaded right in front of Abd al-Rahman as he treads water.
Act II: The Hunted Exile
Now a stateless fugitive with a massive bounty on his head, the prince spends the next five years constantly on the run. The Abbasid Caliph has spies everywhere.
He treks across Egypt and the entirety of North Africa, surviving in disguise, dodging assassins, and navigating brutal desert politics. He eventually finds refuge with his mother’s people, a Berber tribe in modern-day Morocco. From the coast, he looks across the Strait of Gibraltar toward Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula), which is chaotic, divided, and ripe for the taking.
Act III: The Conquest of Spain
He doesn't just want to survive; he wants his throne back. Abd al-Rahman sends emissaries across the sea to rally old Umayyad loyalists, Syrian cavalrymen, and local mercenaries.
He crosses into Spain and builds an army of misfits and outcasts. In 756 CE, at the Battle of Musarah, he defeats the ruling governor and captures Cordoba, establishing an independent kingdom right on the edge of Europe.
The Climax: The Package
You need a killer ending for a movie like this, and history provides one. The Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad is furious that Abd al-Rahman is still alive and ruling a kingdom. He sends his best general to Spain with a massive army to finally crush the prince.
Abd al-Rahman defeats the invasion force. He then has the Abbasid general decapitated, preserves his head in salt and camphor, packs it in a beautiful box, and has it secretly delivered directly to the Abbasid Caliph’s tent halfway across the world.
Upon opening the box, the terrified Caliph famously says: "Praise be to God who placed the sea between me and such a foe!" He then gives Abd al-Rahman the ultimate badass nickname: The Falcon of Quraysh.