Summer of Blood

Last month I reviewed a couple of new books about Robin Hood for The Times. (You can read the piece here.) I signed off with a slightly cheap shot at Russell Crowe, who has been cast to play Robin in Ridley Scott’s new film, due next summer and currently filming in Wales.

Robin Hood is an essential part of the tradition of popular English literature, and has worn a thousand different faces and causes since he first appeared (probably) in the thirteenth century. But the tendency has been for him to become softer, slushier (and more socialist) with each passing age. The two big films that have been made about him in my lifetime have been the appallingly cheesy ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ and the Disney version in which Robin was played, as I recall, by a rather gay little fox.

None of this is really true to the original Hood tradition. The medieval tales were violent. Robin was uncompromising and fairly unlikeable at times. So in fact, I do think Crowe is a decent pick to play Robin. He’s rough around the edges. He’s grumpy. He’s good with a sword.

The question is whether the script, which has apparently been through a number of rewrites, has stayed true to the original suggestion that Crowe’s Robin will be a dark and morally ambiguous creation, probably related to Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale’s gruff and bothered Batman. I do hope it has.

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