The wires (yes, I still think of them like that) were buzzing all weekend with MTV's big scoop -- that while Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott were out promoting Body of Lies, the network cornered them about the long-delayed Nottingham, Scott's revisionist Robin Hood story. There have been a lot of names attached to the role of Robin Hood, ranging from Christian Bale to newcomer Sam Riley.

Forget all of that because now, from Scott himself, comes the announcement that Crowe will be playing both roles. Mum on the details, the director would only say it was "a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes." I would take that to mean that the Sheriff of Nottingham becomes Robin Hood after having to steal from the poor one too many times ... or they're twins, which would be pretty lame, especially for Scott and Crowe.

But wait -- there's more! CHUD points out that in reading the original screenplay, they noticed the Sheriff was caught between a tyrant king and a less-than-heroic Robin Hood. Nothing in this script indicated the Sheriff and Robin Hood could be played by the same actor. Now, Brian Helgeland came in and did a rewrite, and much depends on that.

The medievalist in me suspects this is less shockingly revisionist than a return to the old medieval legends, where Robin Hood was merely an outlaw who beheaded people from time to time, not the Robin of Locksley we all know and love. It's a pretty flexible legend, and I'm very anxious to see what Scott does with it ... when it finally heads into production, that is.

The Nottingham rumors are flying as thick as, well, the trees of Sherwood Forest. Both CHUD and Ain't It Cool News, who apparently share the same source, are adamant that Christian Bale will not be playing Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's reinterpretation of the classic tale. So, as exciting as the idea of seeing Bale and Russell Crowe square off again is, it will have to wait for another film. Oddly, I find the news a relief. I like Bale immensely, but there are only so many icons a man should play in his career!

But, there's a new name being tossed about. Latino Review reports that Sam Riley, who played the troubled Ian Curtis in Control, is rumored to be in the running. Not only that, but Russell Crowe is said to be championing his casting. Whatever, and whoever, Crowe wants, he usually gets. So, if you look to your right, you may be looking at the latest incarnation of Robin Hood.

Riley is certainly closer to Sienna Miller's age, thus making the love triangle between Maid Marian, Robin and Nottingham a bit more complex. (And palatable to all of us leery of the age gap between Miller and Crowe.) He is certainly a fresh choice, and the role would lend itself to a talented newcomer. We shall soon see! Meanwhile, sound off below -- is Riley a good fit for the man in green? Or are you off the project for good now that Bale is out of the running?

It's a day of big actors and big rumors. Aside from murmurs of Josh Brolin as Snake Plissken, The Daily Mail claims Christian Bale is in talks to play Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's upcoming film, Nottingham, which has already cast Russell Crowe as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sienna Miller as Maid Marian.

The paper says: "Nothing is signed for Bale, but director Ridley Scott is exceedingly keen to cast him." This could just as easily be false as it is true, but it wouldn't be surprising if Ridley was keen on Bale. The man has oodles of acting talent, and he's got increasing star power, so he's the perfect guy for a role like this. They say that costume fittings start next week, so we should know soon either way, as well as if Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt will sign on.

Now, should this be true: I wonder how many iconic roles Christian Bale can take on before it's overkill, or whether he can just keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. He's Batman, John Connor, and maybe now Robin Hood. Who's next?

[via CHUD]

Am I the only one who hears Bryan Adams singing that cheesy love song each and every time Ridley Scott's new Robin Hood flick gets a mention? I can't help it, the damn song is just there. It's burned into my big-screen Robin Hood memories and it won't go away. Help! But enough about me -- the BBC tells us Sienna Miller has officially confirmed that she will be playing the lovely Maid Marian in Nottingham, opposite Russell Crowe's Sheriff of Nottingham. Says Maid Miller: "It's happening. I just found out. It's the most exciting news in the world. It's ridiculous. But there's this looming actor's strike, so it's not 100% sure that it's going to be made, but it's looking pretty certain."

Hopefully we'll avoid this whole actor's strike thingy, because I'm honestly very interested in seeing what Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Sienna Miller do with the Robin Hood story -- especially since they're sort of flipping it so that the Sheriff is a bit more sympathetic and Robin is, well, nothing but a street hood ... or something like that. Oh, and there's a love triangle. No word yet on who they'll get to play the legendary Robin Hood, though I wouldn't mind seeing Orlando Bloom in the role. Thoughts?

Nottingham is currently scheduled to hit theaters on November 6, 2009.

It seemed completely strange to me when I heard that Ridley Scott wanted to make Monopoly into a movie. I mean, it's no Clue. There's no crazy characters to bring to life (no, an iron is not a crazy character), and a less novel-like gameplay. Yet I'm still intrigued, and will have to be for a while longer. While talking with Empire, Scott said that the project is still in development and that he doesn't know "where we're going to go with that." That doesn't sound good.

He did discuss, however, what draws him to it. It "underscores the mean side of people. Monopoly changes people, the nicest person becomes a monster -- as soon as they buy Park Lane, that's it, they've all changed. I'm trying to figure out what tone of comedy it could be. It could be a really big film." First, does this mean we'll have Monopoly UK-style? Either way, a group of people are going to get confused over the names. Secondly, what's with this monster thing? I've had some lively Monopoly games, like the time my little cousin wiped the floor with me, or when conglomerations were made to try to take down the big guys, but in my experience, it's been whoever is losing that gets a little mean or snarky. How about your Monopoly experiences?

In other news, Scott discussed the upcoming Nottingham picture, which he calls Robin Hood -- I don't know if that's just his name for it, or if the title was changed. Whatever the case, once Leo and Russell are done with Body of Lies, and all the strikes are settled, Scott will kick the film into gear. He says Crowe is still tapped for the lead, and he's scouted some locations. Now I'm not sure if Scott said something else about the project that wasn't posted, but Empire says that the Sheriff twist previously reported "appears to have either fallen by the wayside or Crowe fancies reprising his conflicted bad guy schtick again." Such confusion!

It looks like everything is up in the air, so we'll have to continue to wait and see what Scott has in store.

After some recent and somewhat disappointing cinematic attempts at telling the story of Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Maid Marion -- including a rather dismal affair known as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner with a dreadful English accent -- it looks like the venerable story is being put back in action yet again. According to Variety, Russell Crowe has agreed to star in a new version of the classic tale for Imagine Entertainment and producer Brian Grazer.

Crowe will not be playing Robin Hood, however. Instead, he will star as the often-portrayed-as-evil Sheriff of Nottingham in this "revisionist" version of the story. What makes it "revisionist" you may wonder? Well, this new version, written as a spec by Sleeper Cell creators Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, is based on a premise that the Sheriff was more noble than previously portrayed and that Robin Hood was far less virtuous. In fact, in this story, in many ways Robin Hood is not much more than a common thief. Of course, there's also a love story involving Crowe's Sheriff, Robin Hood and the lovely Marion to further complicate matters.

At the moment, the Robin Hood and Marion roles are still to be cast. The pic is also in search of a director, but some of the names being thrown around at this point include Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi and Jon Turteltaub. Call me crazy but I like Russell Crowe since he played bad guy Sid 6.7 in the less-than-stellar Virtuosity. He's a great actor who can pull off almost any kind of role so the Sheriff of Nottingham should be no trouble at all. Still, I'm a little disappointed he didn't take on the role of Robin Hood -- but I guess I can't have everything. And really, I don't envy the actor who will be playing the part opposite Crowe. That'll be a tough one. Shooting is expected to start near the end of the year or early in 2008.

I was at a party full of film geeks last weekend, and what movie were people talking about at length? Not Awesome; I F***ing Shot That!, the Beastie Boys movie playing in the background; not any of the Oscar contenders currently flooding theaters; not even Christmas movies. No, for some reason, the people around me were chatting nostalgically about the recent DVD release of Disney's 1973 animated Robin Hood, which features animated woodland animals as the principal characters in the standard Robin Hood/Maid Marian story. The voice talent included Disney regulars Peter Ustinov as evil Prince John, Phil Harris as Little John, and Terry-Thomas as Prince John's nasty sidekick, Sir Hiss.

Another character was voiced by a musician who composed some of the songs for the film, the late Roger Miller. Miller's 70th birthday is today; he died in 1992 from cancer. It's probably not considered fashionable to confess to a liking for Miller and his 1960s-era country music, but I grew up listening to it on road trips and in my grandmother's car (on 8-track, no less), and his music is still a road-trip favorite of mine. As a child, I found the novelty-style lyrics in songs like "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd" irresistable. So you can imagine that I was naturally enamored of a movie that combined cute animated creatures with Miller's music. I even had a 45 rpm record with songs from the movie to play on my little plastic turntable. In Robin Hood, Miller plays Alan-a-Dale, the singing rooster, as pictured above. I haven't seen the movie in years and years, although I can remember Miller's "Whistle Stop" song from the film pretty well.

Miller wasn't in many other films, although occasionally he turned up on TV shows, and his songs still appear on a number of soundtracks. In the past year, his big hit "King of the Road" could be heard in Talladega Nights and Brokeback Mountain. Now I'm wondering whether it's worthwhile to give Robin Hood another look, or if it's one of those movies that's best remembered nostalgically from childhood days. The film geeks at the party claimed that the new DVD contains an alternate ending, but is it worth the risk of possibly finding the movie too childish and irritating from an older viewpoint?

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.