There is sad news today as we get word that Ridley Scott’s interesting take on the Robin Hood story, Nottingham, has been delayed. Scott had been set to direct the tale of Sherwood Forest and Russell Crowe was already signed up to star as the Sheriff of Nottingham, but now it seems the film may never get made at all.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed earlier reports that said that the Ridley Scott film had decided to delay production indefinitely. The film was originally slated to start filming in mid-August in London. Although the filmmakers were planning to go ahead despite fear of an impending actors’ strike, a delay in filming would have cost them the greenery of the forest which is pretty much an imperative part of the story of Robin Hood. However, it wasn’t the possible strike and loss of greenery, but rather the screenplay that was the undoing of the project.
Universal had this to say:
“The current version of the screenplay is not yet where the studio and the filmmakers want it to be in terms of realizing the full value of the story. 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.”
The project is still technically in development which means that it could happen, but this sort of postponement usually means the project never gets made or gets made with a completely different cast of characters.
Ridley Scott is known almost as much for the films he hasn’t made as the films he has. There is little reason to hope they will correct the script problems and have the project up and running anytime soon. With both Scott and Crowe being so in demand it seems likely they will both move on to other projects (or the same project if history is any indicator) and put this one behind them. Somewhere Sienna Miller, who was to play Maid Marion, is sobbing tears of regret.
I’m personally upset because I was very much looking forward to this film. Everything I have heard about it made it sound like it was going to be incredible. I’m not sure what the script problems were but if I had to guess I’d say it was more budgetary concerns than actual problems with the script…but that’s just a guess. We may never know.
Nottingham had been scheduled for release on Nov. 6, 2009.
Well thats certainly a shame….perhaps since this is cancelled they can now bring other 80's TV shows to the big screen as they have lately (A-team, Miami vice). Airwolf is just waiting to be made….
Airwolf?????
That is dissapointing because we could use a new take on the Robbin Hood story. We haven't had a movie like that since Kevin Costner's (sp?) “Robbin Hood” movie. If we are going to have Sherlock Homes re-imagined, why now Robbin Hood? I guess we'll see what happens. Russel Crow would have been a good casting idea also.