DB7

BAZ BAMIGBOYE on Keira Knightley, Christian Bale and Andrea Riseborough and much more... | Mail Online

Marky B

No disrespect to Nottingham or the people of Nottingham,but couldn't they have chosen a better title? It sounds more like a travelogue of the good city?
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

DB7

Robin Hood and the wrong sort of leaves

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Ridley Scott cancelled filming because the leaves in Sherwood Forest need to be green

For a man who spent his life in Sherwood Forest robbing the rich and giving to the poor, it is a strange excuse: Robin Hood's latest Hollywood outing has been postponed because of a failure to grasp a fundamental of botany.

The director Ridley Scott has pulled the plug on Nottingham, which was due to begin production in the UK in a fortnight's time, after realising the leafy trees providing his backdrop would turn brown with the onset of Autumn, halfway through filming.

A statement from Universal, the studio backing the project with an estimated $100m (£50m), revealed that its stars, Russell Crowe and Sienna Miller, have been informed that filming cannot commence until next spring, at the earliest, since: "The film's forest locations need to be green."

The wrong kind of leaves are not the only problem. Universal said the anticipated Screen Actors Guild strike was a "cloud" hanging over production. Most problematically, the studio is dissatisfied with the script, originally by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris but re-drafted at the fingertips of the Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland. "The current version," Universal said, "is not yet where the studio and the filmmakers want it to be in terms of realising the full value of the story."

It added: "Universal could have moved forward with one of these challenges, but the confluence of the three caused the studio to reconsider and take the time for all conditions to be optimal."

Although Universal says it is still "committed" to putting Nottingham in the cinemas, the announcement of the delay is a blow to film-goers, who have been looking forward to the renewal of Scott's partnership with Crowe since last year.

Nottingham was billed as a revisionary retelling of the Robin Hood story through the eyes of the Sheriff of Nottingham, played sympathetically by Crowe, who would emerge as its eventual hero. Miller was to play Maid Marian, while the Batman star Christian Bale was considered as another confused vigilante: a somewhat un-heroic Robin Hood.

Explaining the plot, Scott said: "Richard the Lionheart is on his return from the Crusades when he takes an arrow in his neck and dies. His brother, John, becomes king. He is actually pretty smart, but he gets a bad rap because he introduces taxation. So he's the bad guy in this."

Crowe's Sheriff of Nottingham was to be King Richard's former right-hand man, who gets torn between his duty towards the unpopular King John and his affinity towards both the English people and Robin Hood. "He is caught between the minority of haves and the majority of have nots," explained Scott.

The delay to filming, which had already been postponed, is a blow for the British film industry, which has worked hard in recent years to attract lucrative big studio productions to the UK.

As to apportioning blame: Hollywood studio executives could, perhaps, be forgiven for failing to realise that Britain's deciduous woodland would become less leafy in winter, since many of their own forests are coniferous. However, the same cannot be said for Scott, who was born and raised in Co Durham.

SirOllyBolly

Russell Crowe to play Robin Hood and the Sheriff in new film Nottingham - Telegraph

Anyone else thinking that this is a film that doesn't need to be made or seen?

Its been done so many times already - why, Ridley, why?

SirOllyBolly

"What fresh lunacy is this?"

AdrianTurner

I thought at first it was a sequel to Notting Hill.

faginsgirl

Is it just me or is this a bit bizzare and a wee bit off putting?

Sure, people like Peter Sellers and Alistair Sim have done it but.....hmmm....

And is the implication at the end of this article saying it wont just be Crowe who does this change of character? I`m not sure.

Crowe 'to play Robin Hood and Sheriff' - Yahoo! News UK

xx

We`re changin` lodggggggggings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wicked Lady

As long as he doesn't play Maid Marion.

Or worse - Alan A Dale I forsee theatre audiences leaving in droves, as he cranks up with 30 Odd Foot of Grunt.

alan french

Hi.
Is it necessary to the plot? About the sherrif and Robin I mean. Not Maid Marion.
By the way a useless piece of information. Did you know that if he existed, most experts believe Robin Hood aka Robyn Hode etc. was more likely to have lived at the time of The Peasant's Revolt than King Richard and the Crusaders? That early stories put him in Barnisdale Forest in Yorkshire and not Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire?
Alan French.

faginsgirl

Well unless they are biologically related as a new twist and therefore are allowed to look similar, I can`t see how it can be relevant, but I suppose all will be revealed before long.

Thanks for the rest of the info too Alan

xx

We`re changin` lodggggggggings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wicked Lady

That's rather interesting, isn't it? And could explain something that's always bothered me about the whole Robin Hood story.

If you look at the story of Robin Hood with an analytical eye, King Richard was off swanning about in Europe wasting millions of taxpayers dollars fighting a useless war while his subjects were at home struggling under economic hardship.

Does this strike anyone as a tad familiar?.

The story of Robin Hood seems to have been given a bit of a Nationalistic agenda in the making.

faginsgirl

I love hearig about folk lore etc. I saw a programme on the pied piper not so long ago and was sad to hear it is really a sinister story involving children, but I don`t think we can be completely sure where these things really origionate from.

xx

We`re changin` lodggggggggings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

alan french

Hi.
Faginsgirl and Wicked Lady.
I have somewhere along the line in the past, looked into the subject of Robin Hood. My advice to anyone is don't. You will end up more confused than you were before. But you will learn a lot about history.
There may have been more than one. It might be fact. It might be fiction. And various theories have been put forward as to when during middle ages, the stories took place. The earliest piece of literature to date known is (pardon the spelling) The Vision Of Piers Plowman. There is an old balad in existance called the Gyste Of Robin Hood. The king referred to in this is King Edward. But we do not know which one. That is just for starters.
If anyone wishes to investigate and become a nervous wreck like me, it pays to study more than one reference work both on printed page and internet. It may pay to start with Robin Hood website. www.robbinhood.info
Good luck. Hope you have an abundance of tranquilisers. If I do not see your names on this website for awhile, I shall understand why.
Alan French

faginsgirl

I wholeheartedly agree Sir Olly! There is nothing worse than going to see a film which you KNOW what the entire storyline will be and what the characters will be wearing as you wait for that inevitable annoying thing, the love interest

Thanks for all the info Alan!

xx

We`re changin` lodggggggggings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wicked Lady

Thanks Alan!

It may be a quest for me to venture on some rainy Sunday afternoon when there's plenty of Brandy in the house.

alan french

Hi Faginsgirl and Wicked Lady.
Re: Your thankyous for the info. It was my pleasure.
Alan French.