With the arguable exception of Avatar, 2009 was a fairly disappointing year for SF and fantasy movies when all is said and done. Fortunately 2010 is full of promise with an outstanding lineup that includes The Book of Eli, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Clash of the Titans, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1), Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia, Tron Legacy, Solomon Kane (which is technically a long-overdue 2009 release) and The Wolfman. Vying with Solomon Kane for top spot in my list of most highly anticipated movies however is Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and if this first official trailer (below) is a good measure of what to expect, we can finally lay to rest the awful memory of Kevin Reynold's Prince of Thieves.
We've been following this project for almost three years when it was first rumoured that Scott was contemplating a revisionist version of the legend. Back then the movie was called Nottingham and Russell Crowe was to play a sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham trying to deal with a less than virtuous thief by the name of Robin Hood. Later the rumour morphed into a bizarre suggestion that Crowe would play both the Sheriff and Robin Hood, and then it was revealed that the Sheriff was in fact Robin Hood in cunning disguise.
Fortunately the ridiculous and ill-advised revisions have been revised out of existence in place of an overdue reinvigoration of the legend by one of the true masters of gritty realism, Ridley Scott. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, more than anything else it's Scott's involvement with this project that justifies another retelling for the big screen. As a director Scott has a feel for the real, bringing a gritty realism as much to his fantastical and historical films as to his more contemporary movies. If anyone can draw out the legend’s contemporary relevance in what otherwise risks being dismissed as a Medieval fairy tale, Ridley Scott can.
Robin Hood is due in cinemas in May and stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong and Max von Sydow amongst others.
[5 January] This version of the trailer has just been released:
Another retelling of the Robin Hood legend is also in the works, an action adventure set in a dystopian futuristic London.
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