A24 has grabbed the rights to The Death Or Robin Hood, one of the hottest packets up for negotiation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival market.
The story is still set in Sherwood Forest, but there are no merry outlaws in tights here. The Death Of Robin Hood stars Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer and is described as a “grounded, visceral, and darker reimagining” that sees Robin Hood grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder.
Now he’s a battle-worn loner who finds himself gravely injured and in the hands of a mysterious woman who offers him a chance at salvation.
It will be directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One) who also wrote the script. Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett, and Alexander Black will produce.
According to the report in Variety, the negotiations were hard-fought and complicated involving multiple bidders.
Production will begin in February next year. No release date is yet set.
The first clear reference to “rhymes of Robin Hood” is from the alliterative poem Piers Plowman, thought to have been composed in the 1370s, followed shortly afterward by a quotation of a later common proverb:
“Many men speak of Robin Hood and never shot his bow.”
The legend tells of a heroic outlaw, a highly skilled archer, and a swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth. It is only modern retelling that sometimes depict him as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class.
This sounds interesting. Let’s hope it is more successful than Ridley Scott’s effort that also started as an interesting project to be called Nottingham and telling the story from the point of view of the Sheriff, that eventually became notable mostly for Russell Crowe’s Brummie accent.
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