Sunday
27Jul2008
Ridley Scott's 'Nottingham' To Be Delayed
Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 8:16PM 
Citing numerous obstacles standing in the way of a clean
start to the production,
Ridley Scott's revisionist Robin Hood tale,
Nottingham, has been temporarily postponed.
The Hollywood Reporter cites issues with
filming locations, concerns over the script, and the current labor unrest as
reasons the film will be delayed. Universal says the "cloud of the SAG strike"
loomed large over the immediate future of the project. The studio also indicated
that "the film's forest locations need to be green," meaning that even if the
other issues work themselves out in the coming months, filming will likely be
held off until next spring.
Russell Crowe was/is slated to star as the
Sheriff of Nottingham in the film, and the table have turned in this version of
the story, with Robin Hood being the bad guy, or at least, the Sheriff is a good
guy. It's a great concept for a film, but apparently, even that still needs some
work. The script has been rewritten by action specialist
Brian Helgeland, yet Universal still feels that
"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."
Translation: Our screenplay blows.
That's quite a lot to sort out, of course, and you have
to wonder whether Crowe and Ridley Scott will still be in the mix eight or nine
months from now. Odds are, they'd still be committed to making it because they
work so well together, but who knows what projects Ridley will be tied to then
and what roles will be out there for Crowe. Incidentally, why hasn't anyone ever
mentioned him for Thor? Just curious.
Nottingham was scheduled to be released next November,
but now, if the intimations about next spring are to be believed, I'd think
summer 2010 would be the earliest we could see it.
Reader Comments (2)
Ridley Scott tends to move fast and a postponed production often means a skipped one for him.
But I am astonished that a script by Brian Helgeland would be too poor to film.
Rather, I think there was a problem with the role of Robin Hood. Obviously, they need a strong actor to counter Russel Crowe and I don't think they had it.
Ridley Scott should move away from the studio fold and give us a couple of uncompromising gems to crown his career. We've seen Gladiator already and we don't need another.
Part of his problem is trying to combine connoiseur film-making with "studio friendly" blockbuster ambition, which tends to leave both camps unsatisfied.
After catching up on the latest gossip, it seems that Ridley's had a last minute brainwave and decided to make Nottingham and Robin Hood the same person, both alter egos being played by Russel Crowe. Needless to say, this requires some work on the script. Could this be a result of Christian Bale saying no thanks to playing Robin?
In any case, British railways have been using leaves as an excuse for late trains for years, so nobody really bought that one as an excuse for postponing movies.