Now don’t get us wrong, we liked Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (it was Alan Rickman’s second best stab at a baddie after all), but there hasn’t been a truly great film about the Lincoln Green-clad hero since Errol Flynn swashed his buckle in 1938. So it’s particularly exciting to hear that Sir Ridley of Scott is planning to travel to Sherwood Forest for his next flick.
“I finished filming in December with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe for (Al Qaeda/CIA thriller) Body Of Lies and I start Robin Hood here as soon as the writers and actors strikes get settled,” says Scott. “I’ve already taken a walk in the woods and scouted out some locations. We’ve got Russell Crowe lined up to play the lead - he can do a really good English accent.”
There was talk a while back of Scott re-imagining the legend with Crowe playing a heroic Sheriff Of Nottingham and the man in the hood portrayed as the villain. That idea appears to have either fallen by the wayside or Crowe fancies reprising his conflicted bad guy schtick again - think 3:10 To Yuma with extra arrows.
The prospect of Scott and his current muse Crowe getting merry with their men is undeniably exciting and we’ve finally got some stars of quality to erase the memory of that poxy BBC show.
Talking to Empire at the Baftas, Scott also had some words to say about his Monopoly plans.
“That’s all in development,” he says. “I’ve got no idea where we’re going to go with that but it’s the most popular board game in the world.
“What’s amusing about Monopoly is that it underscores the mean side of people. Monopoly changes people, the nicest person becomes a monster – as soon as they buy Park Lane, that’s it, they’ve all changed. I’m trying to figure out what tone of comedy it could be. It could be a really big film.”
If we’re being honest, the idea of a film of the game probably responsible for more board game-related homicides than any other will take some selling to us but Scott and Crowe doing Robin Hood? Hell yeah. Watch this space for all the latest developments.