Cinematical

A few months back we heard that Russell Crowe was attached to a new Universal flick called Nottingham. It's supposed to be a role-reversal of the classic Robin Hood story. This time around the Sheriff of Nottingham is the good guy and Robin Hood is the antagonist. Pretty neat. Crowe will play the sheriff, but Robin hasn't been cast just yet -- probably because Universal didn't have a director. Now they do.

Sir Ridley Scott, the awesome* director of Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and, um, Legend (yeah, sue me, I like it) will be reuniting with Russell Crowe for the fourth time. (Their previous collaborations were Gladiator, A Good Year, and the upcoming American Gangster, which sounds pretty fantastic.) According to Variety, Mr. Scott will helm Nottingham after he finishes up on a Leo DiCaprio spy thriller called Body of Lies. But since the production hasn't even started yet, you'll just have to be a little bit patient. The Nottingham screenplay, which apparently caused quite the bidding war, comes from Demon Knight scribes Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.

For other "revisionist" takes on the Robin Hood legend, I'd recommend this one, this one and (especially) this one. (*Yes, the "awesome" comes from me, as Ridley Scott has been one of my favorite directors since I was old enough to know what a "director" was. Yeah, so A Good Year kinda stunk, but it'd take two million misfires before I forgot that Alien is my favorite film of all time.)