Confusion Over Russell Crowe’s Role In ‘Nottingham’ Gets Cleared Up… Maybe

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 3, 2008

A couple months ago I called bullshit on the rumor that Russell Crowe would be playing both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Nottingham.  The film was already meant to be a revisionist take on the classic tale that swaps the polarity of the good outlaw and the evil lawman so that Robin Hood became the scoundrel and the Sheriff became the hero.  Scott made some comments that implied Crowe would be playing both characters, and I envisioned only two possible scenarios where that could work and I was a fan of neither.  Well producer Brian Grazer recently spoke with MTV and he provided some much needed clarity to the dual roles, and shows that one of my possibilities was actually pretty close.  I still don’t like it, but it apparently wasn’t bullshit.

“The two role confusion is that what Robin Hood does is he sees Nottingham in battle very early in the movie and Nottingham dies. And Robin Hood takes over the identity of Nottingham. That’s how it plays out.” Grazer also referred to the film as “an origin story” for the characters.

I’m left curious as to where the proper conflict will originate without two strong, dueling personalities to battle throughout the film culminating in a final showdown worthy of comparison to the Costner/Rickman clash of 1991.  There can’t be one without two distinct characters.  So I’m guessing a new villain will be introduced?  And how exactly can this be an origin story if one of the two main characters is killed off early on in the movie?

What do you think of this clarification?  For all my questions and criticisms I’ll still watch the damn thing.


Read more articles by Rob Hunter

« Previous Article | Next Article »

Related Topics:

In Development, Movie News, , ,

Related Reading:

Your Ad Here

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

  • I like it. I prefered the alter ego approach a la Batman/Bruce Wayne or Superman/Clark Kent. But taking over the personality of the Sheriff could be interesting. In saying that I LOVED the Christian Bale rumour but was also pretty sure it was false.
  • Hannibal
    What about the possiblity of the villain being Guy of Gisbourne?
  • daviedave_47
    Maybe they liked Tracy Ullman so much in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" that they are going to reintroduce her "Latrine" character as a viable sorceress in this one.
  • joshi38
    The only real way I see this working is with Robin having a "conflict" with his duel personality, somewhat like Gollum...

    In other words, it'd end up being exactly like stuff we've seen before, only with Robin Hood for no good reason. Of course this is just conjecture on my part and may be entirely wrong (and I hope it is) but it seems like it'd be the only way to do it without simply having it turn into a generic "Hero fights bad guy" movie, in which case they could have just kept the original Sherrif.

    I like the idea of a different take on the origin of Robin hood and even like the idea of the reversed polarity, but seriously, doing something interesting with it doesn't mean going weird... there's a difference.
  • Russell Crowe shouldn't be Robin Hood. There. I said it.
  • It would need to have a very good cast to even hope to over cme a weak story. Technically this reminds me of the Zorro mythos but set in medieval England.
  • It sounds a bit retarded. Why is it being called Nottingham if he isn't in it? I preferred what the film sounded like before where Robin was the terrorist and Notts the good guy.
  • My prediction - Robin Hood sees Nottingham killed, assumes his identity. He live as Nottingham, eventually becoming corrupt which inspires a new Robin Hood to take up the mantle to fight old Robin Hood who is secretly new Nottingham. Thus the confusing circle is complete and the sequel is just a retelling of the original Robin Hood tale, with the added twist that Nottingham actually used to be Robin Hood.

    ... I hate Hollywood.
  • scanain
    Robert Fure - thank you for stealing my thunder, was thinking the very same thing and thuo swinest frometh under me.
blog comments powered by Disqus