10 First Draft Movie Ideas Better Than What We Got

4. Robin Hood & The Sheriff Of Nottingham Are The Same Person - Robin Hood (2010)

The Original Idea

One of the many early drafts for Ridley Scott's 2010 Robin Hood made the curious yet undeniably insane decision to have the Sheriff of Nottingham chasing his own tail, by dropping a Fight Club-esque reveal that Robin and the Sheriff would actually be the same person.

Screenwriter William Martell ran down the various aborted scripts in a lengthy blog post, with this version featuring the Sheriff essentially pursuing himself for most of the movie. But of course, it was eventually rubbished, with Martell speculating that someone found the premise too silly.

What We Got

Pretty much every interesting iteration of the premise was thrown out, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) was brought in to craft a more simplistic and straight-forward Robin Hood story.

Needless to say, the film's utter lack of soul and creativity led to critical pannings and commercial disappointment.

That's not to say the Robin Hood: Fight Club treatment would've been a box office smash, but it at least would've been something more inspired and interesting than what we ended up with.