Russell Crowe Attached to Revisionist Robin Hood Film

Posted on February 9, 2007

Russell Crow is set to star in a remake of Robin Hood. But here's the catch: the Sheriff of Nottingham (Crowe) is the good guy. The show is being produced by Imagine Entertainment with the creators of Sleeper Cell - Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris - behind it. The concept is that the Sheriff is investigating a series of murders and Robin Hood is the main suspect for these murders.

Reiff told The Hollywood Reporter, "Part of the strength of the script was the simple idea of doing Robin Hood by making the sheriff the good guy. That's something we didn't talk (about) with anybody all the time we worked on it."

Voris says, "People are reading it, and you hope they like it. When I heard we got an offer, I was like, 'Thank God somebody wants it.' "

THR says Universal won the bidding war for the film about 36 hours after the script was sent out. Crowe reportedly has a $20 million deal. THR Directors being considered for the role include Sam Raimi, Ridley Scott and Bryan Singer. We're not sure what we think about making the Sheriff of Nottingham the good guy (the cop) and Robin the bad guy (the robber). It's tinkering with a very popular anti-establishment myth. On the other hand, it's an interesting premise. But the Sheriff needs something special: he's the one who's the greatest archer in all the land, or something. And Robin better not be a great-looking scoundrel who steals every scene or it's not going to work.

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