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?

Realistic spy fiction is hard. On screen, it's almost never done. The tendency to romanticize espionage is so ingrained in us through decades of James Bond and Bourne and 24 that a warts-and-all depiction of the way intelligence agencies actually operate might not even make sense to much of the moviegoing public. Occasionally, someone will make a minor, based-on-a-true-story attempt – The Good Shepherd with the CIA, for example, or Breach with the FBI – but those are viewed as history lessons, not spy thrillers.

That makes sense. The CIA doesn't exactly have an open-door policy, so it's hard to say for sure, but by all accounts the work of a real-life agent isn't terribly dramatic, or ripe for genre film treatment. Much of it is a bureaucratic nightmare, and the jobs that we view as exotic and exciting – "secret agent," for example – are usually a tedious slog, consisting of years of building connections and forging allies in the hopes of a payoff in the indefinite future. Yeah: all else equal, I'd rather watch Jason Bourne kick some bad guys in the face while searching for his true identity.

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 just might be possible that Ridley Scott has become one of the busiest directors in the business. Over the course of a year, Scott has been attached to everything from a fashion biopic on Gucci to a big-screen Monopoly flick -- and now there is another title to add to the list. In an interview with the rough and tumble director about his recent projects, the conversation drifted to sci-fi movies and Scott tells Eclipse Magazine, "I am going to do one. I waited for a book for 20 years and I have got the book. I am not going to tell you what the book is but that film is going to probably be written within the next month. That will definitely be what I do next after Nottingham..." Considering the man was responsible for one of the best sci-fi films ever made, trying to top it is going to be a tall order.

Scott failed to mention where this leaves his classic noir flick with Casey Affleck, The Kind One, or the long-suffering Cormac McCarthy adaptation, Blood Meridian. He did provide an update on Meridian and told Eclipse, "We got it down as a screenplay and the problem is that it is so savage. But that's what it is. If you did it properly it would be an X-certificate. But you can't apologise for the violence and you can't quantify the violence and you shouldn't try to explain the violence. It is what it is..." If there's anyone who can sell stylized violence to audiences, it's Scott, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Remember, nothing is official for either of these projects, so stay tuned to Cinematical for updates.

Well, Erik got Nicole Kidman right as the actress who will play Valerie Plame, outed CIA agent, in the upcoming biopic, but it looks like director Doug Liman has other ideas for Joe Wilson, her husband -- the man who wrote the famous op-ed piece "What I Didn't Find in Africa." It's not Richard Gere. Instead, Liman talked with MTV and says that he wants Russell Crowe for the role.

His reasoning: "If you've met Joe, he's a really strong guy. I've never met an actor stronger than Russell Crowe." Liman goes on to say: "It's the Valerie Plame story, but you wouldn't know it when Joe's around. I met with [Russell] for Bourne Identity, and I was terrified. The whole time I was in the room with him I was just scared of him. This is a scary dude! And Joe is kind of like that."

Russell would definitely need to clean up and be aged a bit for the gig, but I guess he could pull it off. However, I wonder if Liman is focusing too much on the scary aspect. Strong and terrifying aren't really the same thing. But we're in a movie world where Josh Brolin is Dubya, so anything is possible.

What happens when men in blue, sworn to protect and to serve, fly out of control? If we're lucky, we get a good movie out of it. If we're really lucky, we get a larger than life character to cheer and to fear. Are you feeling lucky, punk?

Keanu Reaves, of all people, will follow in the steel-toed shoes of some of cinema's finest as a cop who goes on an avenging rampage in David Ayer's Street Kings, which opens tomorrow. That made me reflect on my favorite out of control cinematic cops, men in blue who break free from the laws of god and man. Let us know who we missed in the comments section. But be nice, or we'll track you down and crack you over the head with a night stick.

1. Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry

Clint is so cool as Harry Callahan that he can just glare at bad guys and they give themselves up. Dirty Harry never met a criminal he couldn't beat up, a sergeant he couldn't hate, or a partner he couldn't get killed. He can't help it: he married justice a long time ago and the blind old bat won't leave him alone until he takes out the garbage. Don't even think about getting in his way: he solved the Zodiac killings in 102 minutes! Dirty Harry paved the way for several sequels and countless gruff, lone wolf outlaw police detectives.

One of the films I've been itching to see, which can't even seem to get itself in front of the camera, is Jodie Foster's Flora Plum. For at least the last ten years, there has been buzz about this film, which was originally going to star Claire Danes, out of My So-Called Life and into Yale, and Russell Crowe. But just like bad luck has loomed in Terry Gilliam's world of filmmaking, Foster just can't seem to get it made.

Crowe injured himself and production stopped. He never returned to the project and later in 2002, there was word that Ewan McGregor was taking over. Again, it stopped. Yet Foster is still determined to get the film made. She talked with MTV, and is still very invested in getting it made. However, she's being wary about how much she says, for fear that she'll jinx herself. "My new superstition is to never mention it, because every time I do, my film falls apart." From there, she talks about finally jumping behind the camera again, over a decade since her last directorial effort, Home for the Holidays.

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.

With this latest bit of news, one things for certain: Kevin Macdonald is hurting when he should be playing. State of Play already lost Brad Pitt in November. He was having a slew of issues with the director, and decided to back out of his deal, which instigated Universal to make some threats of legal action. It was particularly crappy timing for the project, since it was set to begin filming when the actor bailed. Word later came that Pitt wasn't happy with the script, and thought it needed work. Presumably not interested in waiting the strike out, Universal disagreed, so they turned to wooing Russell Crowe to replace Brad.

The production will now begin in January, and Variety reports that star #2 is backing out -- Ed Norton. This departure, however, is because of a clash in start times -- State of Play now interferes with Norton's other project, Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass. So Eddie is out, and Universal already has its replacement -- Ben Affleck. So, as it stands now, Ben will be the "fast-rising politician who is caught up in a murder conspiracy. Crowe will play a journalist who leads a newspaper's investigation into the killing. He's conflicted in that he once ran the politician's campaigns, and he is now romancing his estranged wife." Still on the cast list, at least for now -- Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, and Jason Bateman. There is the possibility that Mirren will be the next to go -- she has a potential conflict with the upcoming Love Ranch, but they're trying to work things out.

So I ask you: Should State of Play frolic away, or is it time to shelve the project?

He's been fighting his young look for years, but it looks like Leonardo DiCaprio has finally gotten to a place where he looks older and more experienced. Perhaps that's due to the furrowed brow he's sporting in the picture above. The image is from his current film, Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, and it leads me to wonder if he practiced that furrowed look to age him, and how long it will be before he and Josh Brolin play brothers. (See the bearded resemblance?)

The film is based on David Ignatius' novel about a CIA agent sent to Amman to collaborate with Jordan's special intelligence and track down an Al Qaeda bad guy who is scheming an attack on America. DiCaprio plays the agent, Russell Crowe plays his boss, and Carice van Houten plays his ex-wife. No release date has been set for the film, but it shouldn't take too long to hit screens.

[via Empire Online]