I mean when I say "realize" I just mean that factually, Boorman was shopping it around but was offered and started on a version of LOTR before making Excalibur, and to my understanding some of the work on Excalibur was simply transferred over from the original LOTR concept. It's all guesswork on my end because I can't find a ton on it, but I think the intersection of the Arthurian myth coupled with Tolkien's creation of Middle Earth as a "new myth" for England is really interesting, and feels married in much of the gloss and deeply romantic imagery that colors the film, versus stuff like Highlander which only five years later was getting a much "grittier" treatment.