Looks like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood project just dropped the twist that put it on everyone's radar in the first place.
Russell Crowe is still playing the world's most famous bowman (with four months of archery training now under his belt), but he won't be pulling double duty as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Robin will now come from the ranks of Richard the Lionheart's bowmen.
So, rather than the Robin-vs.-Sheriff showdowns we’ve come to expect from “Robin Hood” movies, Scott has instead employed the history of the time to make an entire country the villain. “It is from France. It is the French,” he insisted. “The villain is much bigger in that sense; much more important, and much more dangerous.”
“[In] 1066 Harold II went against William the Conqueror. Harold took an arrow in his eye, and William the Conqueror took over England, and so France owned everything right through,” Scott explained of the turmoil of that age. “Even to the extent of changing the architecture of the churches from Anglo-Saxon to Roman, that’s French; they changed the arches in the churches.”
It's also been retitled simply "Robin Hood."
I thought it was kind of a cool concept to have Robin Hood be the Sherrif of Nottingham, but the historical/straightforward approach does suit the star power of Crowe and Cate Blanchett better. Defintely has more of a Gladiator tone to it now.
No way they're toppling Errol Flynn from the all-time top spot in my mind, though.
4 comments:
Sounds similar to Bernard Cornwell’s books: The Grail Trilogy (The Archer’s Tale, Vagabond, Heretic) and his latest Agincourt – all of which have the King’s archers as main characters. In Agincourt, the French are referred to as “cabbage-shi##ers”…
So as an archer, Crowe will be more of the common man than an Obama-like figure?
And finally, have I mentioned lately that I am head-over-heels in L.O.V.E. with Cate Blanchette?
Robin Hood: Men in Tights was all I needed to see. --CI
Oops, almost forgot When Things Were Rotten. That was the end-all. --CI
Yeah, I seem to recall you mentioning something about a restraining order from Ms. Blanchett, TCT.
CI, You're such a curmudgeon.
Btw, I finally saw 'Men in Tights' for the first time a few months ago! Wasn't as bad as I expected, though it was further evidence of how painfully lame Mel Brooks was getting toward the end. He is dead, right? Please?
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