Now, keep in mind that this is just a rumor from the British tabloids, but they say that Ridley Scott is keen to sign him for the part. Bale, of course, has been grabbing up all the best roles lately which include the title role in The Dark Knight this summer as well as the main role in the Terminator sequels.

If this rumor proves to be true, Bale would be rejoining his 3:10 To Yuma castmate, Russell Crowe who has already signed on to play the Sheriff of Nottingham. Sienna Miller was recently cast as the Maid Marion. Saoirse Ronan who was in Atonement is also in the cast. There are also rumors that Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt are in talks to join the cast.

As you probably know by now I think that Christian Bale automatically improves the quality of a movie by at least three points just by being in the film. Nottingham was already high on my radar, but if Bale joins it’ll be one of the movies I’m most looking forward to next year. I’m incredibly excited about this and I hope this rumor proves true.

Apparently, costume fittings begin next week so we should know something one way or the other fairly soon. The only thing that worries me is that we know Bale is currently working on Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins so that might impact whether or not he’d be available for Nottingham. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you think? Would Christian Bale make a good Robin Hood? Do you think the movie would be better or worse with Bale in it?

Miller told BBC News: “It’s happening. I just found out. It’s the most exciting news in the world. It’s ridiculous. But there’s this looming actor’s strike, so it’s not 100% sure that it’s going to be made, but it’s looking pretty certain.”

Nottingham has been described as a Gladiator version of Robin Hood. Scott has said that this version of the Robin Hood tale will be told from the Sheriff’s point of view and the story centers around a familiar, yet very different set of characters, than we normally see in tales of Robin Hood. He went on to say, “The Sheriff…strives to do right while caught in the middle of two wrongs – on one side a corrupt and unpopular King who orders him to arrest outlaws, on the other the outlaw himself who threatens to rouse the public in popular anarchy.”

Recent rumors have said that the Sheriff will be portrayed in this film as a noble lawman while Robin Hood will be portrayed more as a shady character.

Universal Pictures is targeting a November 6, 2009 release date for Nottingham.

I wasn’t sure the day would ever come that I’d start to get excited about an upcoming Baz Luhrmann film, but Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman is starting to look like it might be pretty good. We showed you a few pics last month, but the teaser trailer was just released and it gives us a much better idea of what the film is going to look like. It looks beautiful.

Official Plot Synopsis:

A romantic action-adventure set in northern Australia prior to World War II, Australia centers on an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver (Hugh Jackman) to drive 2000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier. With his new film, Luhrmann is painting on a vast canvas, creating a cinematic experience that brings together romance, drama, adventure and spectacle.

An interesting tidbit of trivia is that Heath Ledger was reportedly set to star in this film but ultimately dropped out in order to play The Joker in The Dark Knight. Russell Crowe was also attached to the film but ended up leaving during pre-production. I’m sure Hugh Jackman will do just fine (does he look like Clint Eastwood in the picture above to anyone else?), but it’s interesting to think what the film might have been like with either Ledger (in his last full role) or Crowe in the lead. What do you think? Does this film look interesting to you?

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia hits theaters on November 14th 2008.

The film, “Body Of Lies,” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris, an injured former Iraq War journalist who is hired by the CIA to track down an Al Qaeda leader. The book was turned into a screenplay by the Oscar winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed). Russell Crowe also stars.

I don’t know a whole lot about it yet other than what the description of the book tells us.

Roger Ferris is one of the CIA’s soldiers in the war on terrorism. He has come out of Iraq with a shattered leg and an intense mission�to penetrate the network of a master terrorist known only as “Suleiman.� Ferris’s plan for getting inside Suleiman’s tent is inspired by a masterpiece of British intelligence during World War II: He prepares a body of lies, literally the corpse of an imaginary CIA officer who appears to have accomplished the impossible by recruiting an agent within the enemy’s ranks. This scheme binds friend and foe in a web of extraordinary subtlety and complexity, and when it begins to unravel, Ferris finds himself flying blind into a hurricane. His only hope is the urbane head of Jordan’s intelligence service�a man who might be an Arab version of John le Carré’s celebrated spy, George Smiley. But can Ferris trust him?

“Body of Lies” will hit theaters in the Fourth Quarter of 2008.

Determined not to be outdone by Scorsese and DiCaprio, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are making plans for another trip down the Hollywood aisle – their fifth together (Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body Of Lies).

Reports about the rumored “Nottingham” first surfaced early this year but not much has been known about the possible film since Scott has been hard at work prepping “American Gangster” for its November 2 release. However, at recent press events for Gangster, producer Brian Grazer made several mentions of the film including a statement describing it as “the Gladiator version of Robin Hood.”

On the MTV Movies Blog Grazer said that “…it will have the same propulsion that ‘Gladiator’ had – the same adrenaline hits.” That could be one of the reasons the spec script was so highly sought after. Universal Pictures acquired the rights to Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris’s spec script only after an aggressive bidding contest with other studios such as New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Sony, New Regency Enterprises, and DreamWorks. Other directors wanted in on the action as well. Filmmakers Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi, and Jon Turteltaub were all in contention for the directing assignment on this film at one time or another.

This version of the Robin Hood tale will be told from the Sheriff’s point of view. Scott has said that the movie centers around a familiar, yet very different set of characters, than we normally see in tales of Robin Hood and that this story begins when a legend first walks into history. Scott elaborates even further:

“Richard the Lionheart is on his return from the Crusades [when] he took an arrow in his neck and died,” Scott said of the flick’s set-up. “His brother, John, [becomes king.]”

John, known in his own life as John Lackland (because as the youngest son he didn’t get any inheritance) “was actually pretty smart,” Scott insisted. “[But] he got a bad rap because he introduced taxation. So he’s the bad guy in this.”

Meanwhile, “You’ve got the returning Nottingham who is the right hand man of Richard and witnesses Richard taking the arrow,” Scott revealed. “And so he comes back to England to carry forward Richard’s dream about England.”

The Sheriff, then, strives to do right while caught in the middle of two wrongs – on one side a corrupt and unpopular King who orders him to arrest outlaws, on the other the outlaw himself who threatens to rouse the public in popular anarchy.

It sounds like it could definitely be a really cool movie. Telling the story from the Sheriff’s point of view should change it enough to make it seem like something new while adding the same kind of production values that “Gladiator” had should certainly make it a must-see film. It would seem imperative that the casting of Robin Hood and Marion be just right (I’m guessing they won’t go with Kevin Costner). Finding suitable stars shouldn’t prove too difficult.

The challenge they will face now will be getting this film into production before the possible strikes occur next year. Scott and Crowe are both currently tied up working on “Body Of Lies” with Leonardo DiCaprio.