UPDATED: Strong joins NOTTINGHAM, nearly became Anton Chigurh & what about Bond?

UPDATED: I've been informed by Simon at Digital Spy that Strong was misquoted. This revised edition of the article now reflects accurately the actor's quotes. The versatile Mark Strong for over ten years has been an actor I've greatly admired, he would pop up in all kinds of genre movies, like most British character actors usually do, and completely steal the screen from the bigger "stars" playing opposite them. But in the last 12 months or so his career has really, really taken off. After playing a big part in BODY OF LIES, director Ridley Scott has hired him again for his next movie NOTTINGHAM where he will play the villainous Guy of Gisbourne. In the usual Hood folklore, he is the close adviser to the Sheriff of Nottingham who is given the task to aggressively hunt down the outlaw known as Robin Hood. In the much loved Errol Flynn adaptation of the character, Gisbourne is played by the great Basil Rathbone and is the main adversary of Hood but in the 1991 adaptation he is little more than Alan Rickman's man for hire. Digital Spy carry these quotes from Strong...

"The script is still fluid, but it's essentially the Guy of Gisborne character. In the synopsis I got, he's called Conrad, I don't know why! "Then I got lots of missives sent through saying things like I've got to be blond. I thought, 'How do we do that?' I haven't got any hair, do I dye my stubble?"

Now this project has been under so much secrecy this year, a lot of guess work has had to be used here to figure out what exactly is going on with this film. We know that Russell Crowe is playing both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham which is certainly a new take on this material and a direction it's never gone in before. Sienna Miller is Maid Marion. Vanessa Redgrave was rumored for the movie last year for an unknown role and I was under the impression that William Hurt had been cast as Prince John. Sooooo... presumably Crowe is the good guy. William Hurt the lead villain and Mark Strong the secondary one. That sounds like a pretty cool line-up to me. But anyway, NOTTINGHAM won't be filming till the Spring so we have lots of time to anticipate that exciting project. We have other Mark Strong news to talk about. The same website, Digital Spy, also carry the majorly interesting news that Strong made it down to the last two in the casting stages for The Coen Brothers movie NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN for the role of Anton Chigurh, the role Javier Bardem won an Academy Award for. From the fan point of view, Strong would have been great but MAN, Javier took that role to a completely whole new level.

"I got down to the last two with Javier Bardem for that part, would you believe? The Coen brothers had seen Syriana and Oliver Twist and decided to meet because they couldn't believe it was the same person. "I went over to New York and met them and they sat me down, I did the scene in the garage with them. They said, 'Thanks very much' and an hour later I was out of the room. I thought they'd see everyone , and I later found out that they'd only seen a handful - it was between me and Javier.

I've been told that Spy has some news about Strong and the James Bond franchise to come later today, so make sure you check out the site.