DB7

Ridley Scott to Direct Nottingham
Source: Variety
April 30, 2007


Ridley Scott is set to direct Russell Crowe in the Universal Pictures drama Nottingham, which Brian Grazer is producing for Imagine Entertainment, reports Variety.

Universal earlier bought the spec script by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, creators of the Showtime series "Sleeper Cell." Crowe was attached at that time.

Crowe stars as the Sheriff of Nottingham in a revisionist take on the Robin Hood tale, with Nottingham as a noble and brave lawman who labors for a corrupt king and engages in a love triangle with Maid Marion and Robin Hood.

Production will start next year.

orpheum

when i saw the heading on this i thought that this was typecasting.Crowe is such a yob that this part would fit him like a glove.Maybe we should make revisionist films of American history.e.g Custer beats the Indians at Little Big Horn,the South wins the civil war,we win the War of Independance,so they have to do what we tell them.The Clantons outdraw Wyatt Earp at the OK Coral.Anyone any other ideas?

Steve Crook

Oh good, more material for Jon Culshaw to use in Dead Ringers when he takes the piss out of Crowe's overacting

Steve

ChristineCB

Actually, this is the predecessor to the non-fiction version of "Warren Commission - The Musical!" Russell Crowe will use this fabulously successful song-and-dance production to move into J. Edgar role (and dresses).

There's a good chance that Russell's project after these will be the live-action version of ELMER FUDD vs. BUGS BUNNY. No word on which of the roles he plays - his recent hairline recessions make him more obvious for Elmer, but those ears won't need a lot of makeup.

Especially he is switches over and does Deputy Dawg instead.

silverwhistle

Actually, this doesn't sound unreasonable. The Hood ballads were originally set in the reign of Edward II, in the 1320s. And mediæval brigands were not amiable rogues in green spandex…

"Trust me, I'm a doctor...!"

AndrewLA

Would be interesting to know whether the writers ever came upon thje novel, "The Sheriff of Nottingham" by Richard Kluger. This is an excellent, expertly-researched book, published in 1992.

Kluger identifies the Sheriff as Philip Mark from Touraine, and portrays him as a very decent man with a conscience. Mark was one of the men who signed the Magna Carta.

Robin Hood sort of appears in the novel, but only fleetingly, and then as a nondescript outlaw. Nothing remotely legendary about him.

The new movie will include a triangle -- Marion involved with both the Sheriff and Robin. That's not in the book. Mark is shown as a happily married man.

Recommended.

Jim

OR as Kev would say to Morgan Freeman - "Tonight we will sup with my father in Nattinghammm" - only about 300 miles up the M1 - on horses!!!

I shall now watch Errol Flynn as RH.

Good morning boys.

orpheum

I doubt that there has been one accurate film depicting Robin Hood,principally because so little is really known about him.However as the newspaper editor concludes at the end of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance "When the truth intereferes with the legend print the legend"I am sure that we all prefer the ErroFlynn version of RH>Futhermore no one can surpass Basil Rathbone as the Sheriff of Nottingham

Steve Crook

If so little is known, how do you know they're not accurate?
But you're right. The chances are very high that they aren't

Steve

A Pemberton

Why have I missed this film, it looks so good,there are lots of material for musicals that producers have missed ,has anybody considered " Senator McCarthys Senate commision on un-american activities - The Musical"

ChristineCB

AP, I don't know. I keep handing out these great ideas, and yet, oddly enough, Hollywood never shows up with truckloads of money for my next one!

For this one, I think the Committee's name was actually HUAC (House Unamerican Activities Committee), and "HuAc" should be a fairly easy rhyme for Andrew Lloyd Weber, Mel Brooks or the other greats of Broadway songwriters.

And I can't forget the early '50s Kefauver Commission, another American Congressional committee investigating the never-existed Mafia at the behest of J. Edgar "Pass Me That Poodle Skirt & Pink Fuzzy Sweater" Hoover.

That musical alone could be highlighted by FBI agents and newsreel cameramen infiltrating a Catskills area resort. Along with closets full of cute get-ups for a certain pudgy American supercop. Or two. (I hear they always travel in two's...)

Kick, kick, turn, kick... boom shakalaka, boom shakalaka...

And personally, if they don't dress all of Nottingham's males in tight green lycra, I'll be SO disappointed...

Say, didn't the PHONAK Cycling Team pitch it in this season? They're bound to have a bunch of lime-green tights laying around... a clever wardrobe buyer could probably get them for a, uh, song.

So to speak... boomshakalaka, boomshakalaka...

silverwhistle

They could at least stick to the original literary source, the ballads, which are set in the Forest of Barnsdale (W Yorks).

As a historian, that makes me homicidal. It takes a lot of work to clear up the mess that "printing the legend" causes. Truth (or, at any rate, as near as we can aspire to get to it) first, last and always.

Um… No, "we all" don't. And Basil played Guy of Gisborne, not the Sheriff. He was vastly sexier (and a better fencer) than Flynn.

Robin and Marion was a better film, and (given the 12C setting) had the best ever screen Richard I in Richard Harris.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor...!"

orpheum

Yes i stand corrected it was melville Cooper who was the Sheriff of Nottingham.Oh what a sad life you academics must lead.Going to the cinema to see the latest historical epic and then sitting there and gnashing your teeth at the historical bloomers and anachronisms..The cinema is about entertainment and accuracy is always likely to take a back seat to this whether or not you like it.

ChristineCB

That's why I laughed out-loud at the Warner Brothers' threats to release their "Cult Classic Vol. 4 - Historicals". I could just see some Silver type, head on desk, rolling back and forth, moaning.

Fortunately, some of those DVDs' audiences will be doing the same.

I did stop by one of our local cycle shops, and they do have a collection of PHONAK bibs and shorts. I think the Merry Men would look awfully cute if they could swing from tree to tree in those. "Cheap - you can get 'em real cheap," the clerk said.

So, if anyone knows if Russell Crowe's looking for wardrobe ideas, those Phonak shorts would be mighty handy. And the bibs are great for the Little John types with a bit o' gut... we'd all hate to see someone that size swinging on vines and losing his trou...

Ted Holmes

Cinema being 'about entertainment' is a predominantly Hollywood idea. It's not so in films from other countries (which don't have huge global marketing machines).