Nottingham no more

Ridley Scott has let it be known that the film formerly known as Nottingham – his latest collaboration with Russell Crowe – will now be titled Robin Hood.

And that’s not the half of it.

Talking to MTV, Scott has gone on record saying that the whole Crowe-as-the-Sheriff-and-Hood dual identity plot twist is now all but gone.

“Russell Crowe as both Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham was an idea so far back, way back when at the time I had this proposed to me, and I read it and thought, ‘I don’t really know what it does for it, but it’s alright,’” he admits.

“It is better to simply have the evolution of a character called Robin Hood, who will come out of the Crusades.” So who is Hood in Scott’s mind – and the script? “Robin Hood is in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion, as a bowman.”

“The Sheriff of Nottingham is always a kind of an amusing character in most of the movies, who represents the hierarchy in the story at that point,” Scott says.

“The hierarchy and the wealthy always ruled over the under class, and fundamentally that doesn’t change, because Robin Hood is actually the person who finally - in terms of the overall classical idea of the film - will help the poor, probably taking from the rich.”

Finally, Scott dismisses all the recent chatter about Crowe being a little bit… how to put this gently… out of shape for the role.

“He is going to be totally fit. That is not a problem at all. And he’s been working on his bow and arrow for about 4 months. He sends me tapes of him hitting targets at about 45 meters. He’s pretty good!”

He’d better be - according to Production Weekly, Crowe will be joined in the film by Oscar Isaac, Vanessa Redgrave, William Hurt, Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchet.

[Source: MTV ]

Do you miss the old, dual-identity idea? And who really can be his love interest? Sound off!