Crowe Gives First 'Robin Hood' Interview

Live News visited the film set of Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" in Guildford, Surrey, UK, speaking to Russell Crowe and revealing information about the production.

The project had earlier being called "Nottingham" when the screenplay was more revisionist and focused on the Sheriff, depicting him in a more favorable light. When the story was rewritten, the production became "Robin Hood."

This will be the last post having a tag referring to the name of "Nottingham" and any tags now relating to this film will be under "Robin Hood."

"It's unbelievable. We're dealing with a movie of some considerable scale", Crowe said while on a 200-acre rural estate where different areas have been transformed into Sherwood Forest, 11th century Nottingham, a French castle, a man-made bog from which Maid Marian (Cate Blanchett) is rescued by Robin Hood (Crowe), and fields of crops which have been grown exactly as they would have been in that bygone era.

Asked if he could finally nail down the name of the movie, Crowe said: "I think it's just going to be 'Robin Hood.' There were lots of other ways of calling it and some different ideas. Prior to Christmas, the studio were talking about 'Nottingham' as a title being well-known now, having been discussed for 18 months at the highest levels of press and marketing and stuff like that and it was a good - what they called a solid gold - name.

"And the question came up: But is it better than Robin Hood? And everybody just shook their head and said: No, it's not."

Crowe later explained why he felt the name of any movie was vital to its success. He said calling his 2005 film "Cinderella Man" had been an unwise decision because the title had a "certain effeminacy" about it; calling it Braddock (the lead character played by Crowe) would have been much better, he argued.

The actor was speaking just after shooting a scene where, he said, "the evil Sir Godfrey has put all the good people of Nottingham inside the corn exchange, boarded up the doors and set it aflame. We [Robin and his men] are back from a meeting of the northern barons because I think rebellion is in the air, we find this situation and have to chase Sir Godfrey off."

And it is definitely set to be a gritty portrayal of the legendary outlaw. Crowe said the battle scene he had just shot featured him "chopping one guy through the chest through his crossbow, hacking another guy through the back, spinning the horse, telling Little John to duck cos he's about to get a pike in the back of the neck, burying my sword in that man's chest, turning to find another pike man coming at me, taking the pike off him, using that to uppercut another soldier, then actually throwing it through the chest of another guy."

Filming will later move to Pembrokeshire in Wales and is expected to be finished in August. "Robin Hood" is set for release on May 14, 2010.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Dark Horizons, Live News, The Geek Files