comment #1

p.Vice says ...

Once again deciphering Hollywood code, the concerns are that A) it's a terrible idea, and B) the director in question is a pompous hack who wouldn't know a good script if it popped out of the toilet and bit him on the ass. "Labor unrest" is just a way to make sure nobody's ego gets bruised in the public eye.

comment #2

jesse says ...

I can't say I'm sorry to see this one put on hold. It seems like everyone involved could find something more interesting to do with their time. Studios must really be desperate for something, anything, based on anything but an original idea when "let's do Robin Hood, only like, he's the bad guy, and the Sheriff of Nottingham is, like, the good guy!" gets people excited. Just what we need: a self-serious version of Wicked and all of those other crap books the guy who wrote Wicked wrote after Wicked.

Maybe it's just my vaguely anti-Ridley Scott bias, though. I want more Matchstick Men or perhaps American Gangster, less Kingdom of Heaven or Gladiator or Black Hawk Down. Despite my misgivings about him as a director, I think he can find something better to do. Body of Lies looks pretty cool (though I couldn't tell you what it's about from the trailer) (which is either a great sign that they aren't just distilling the best bits into a trailer... or it's going to be one of those Ridley Scott movies where you're too bored to figure out what's going on).

comment #3

Mark says ...

Isn't there some law of depreciation the more a bigtime director and A-List star work w/ each other? Whether it be Hanks + Speilburg/Zemekis/Howard or Roberts/Clooney + Soderbergh or even Murphy + Landis or Wilson + Anderson. There are some exceptions, such as with highly hit-and-miss directors ala Woody and Scorsese, but I've gotten my fill of Crowe and Scott. Body of Lies looks very unintersting, and i don't know why Leo feels compelled to continue to overcompensate for making the No. 1 chick of all time.

comment #4

Richardson says ...

"Isn't there some law of depreciation the more a bigtime director and A-List star work w/ each other?"

I didn't think 'A Good Year' could be worse than 'Gladiator', but it was. But everybody seems to think 'American Gangster' is much better than either one.

comment #5

thatmovieguy says ...

Why bother doing Robin Hood one more time? Have you watched the BBC series with Jonas Armstrong? That's probably much more engaging than any Hollywood retread could be, even with Russell involved. Besides, everyone knows the Kevin Costner version -- ROBIN OF MALIBU -- will always be the definitive one. Ha!

comment #6

Adonis says ...

Wow, tons of Ridley hate.

First off, Black Hawk Down is an underrated classic. It's extremely visceral, very bare bones. Big fan.

Gladiator's got its problems, but still an impressive film. It just kind of sweeps you along. Good fun.

Kingdom of Heaven's Director's cut is quite good. The theatrical version is appallingly poor in comparison.

American Gangster is well-acted, well-directed traditionaly gangster film.

I mean, seriously.

comment #7

AndrewOwens says ...

They made the right choice. The "location logistics" refers to the fact that Summer is due to come to an abrupt end in the UK and then all the trees will suddenly look pretty brown and mangy. This was a problem with Reynold's Prince of Thieves - they filmed it in September and the whole film looked grey, brown and dingy.

comment #8

peachtree says ...

This rumor (POSSIBLE SPOILER!) just in from chud.com:

UPDATE! POSSIBLE MAJOR SPOILER!

I'll tease you no more, as I've gotten another source to spill on the casting of Robin Hood: he's Russell Crowe. And so is the Sherriff.

Yes, they're the same guy.

I just spoke to an anonymous source who has read the current scriptment, and I'm told that while the concept is cool, there needs to be some writing done to make it all work out.

Like I said, it's a whole different spin on the Robin Hood revisionism. I can't wait to see how it's all done.