Ridley Scott's NOTTINGHAM falls back into mainstream blockbuster fare
Ridley Scott tells MTV that he is "going back to basics" and has re-titled his epic NOTTINGHAM to ROBIN HOOD. He also tells the site that lead Russell Crowe will simply play Hood and NOT The Sheriff of Nottingham as well. Scott has changed his mind and figured out it was dumb to think that Hood and The Sheriff was the same person. Or did Universal force a more mainstream project on Scott?
was an idea so far back, way back when at the time I had this proposed to me, and I read it and thought, I dont really know what it does for it, but its alright, Scott recalled of the now-abandoned idea. It is better to simply have the evolution of a character called Robin Hood, who will come out of a point in the Crusades which is the end.Now suddenly with Crowe playing Hood and if Scott finds a top star to play the villain Sheriff, you got a huge tentpole release on your hands. Though Scott hints that the Sheriff will only be a small villain as part of a bigger picture in the film. Scott says the character is...
"...less important; the Sheriff of Nottingham is always a kind of an amusing character in most of the movies, who represents the hierarchy in the story at that point, 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. 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, thats French; they changed the arches in the churches.Scott says Crowe's weight is...
"...not a problem at all... ... And hes been working on his bow and arrow for about 4 months, Scott revealed. He sends me tapes of him hitting targets at about 45 meters. Hes pretty good!Though I can't help but feel that Crowe as the Sheriff and a young actor, say a Sam Worthington (as previously rumored) would have been more fitting. The impressive cast now includes Cate Blanchett (as Maid Marian, as now confirmed by Production Weekly), William Hurt (as King John, I presume), Mark Strong (as Guy of Gisbourne), Vanessa Redgrave and Saorise Ronan. A new name to the cast is Scott's BODY OF LIES actor Oscar Isaac. Production begins in 2 months. So now we have a much more conventional ROBIN HOOD movie and is that such a bad thing? Crowe and Scott made the mainstream classic Summer movie that was GLADIATOR, who's to say all these changes are necessarily a bad thing.