Sure, the Robin Hood story has been told on film hundreds of times already — but does that really matter when there’s a new version coming soon starring Russell Crowe, the Greatest Actor in the World? No. And to help drive that point home, TGAITW gave a wonderful interview to French television in which he calls all previous Robin Hoods terrible.
Speaking generally, he says, “Past filmmakers and studios have ‘supposed’ things about Robin Hood,” whereas his and Ridley Scott’s new movie “depicts the origins, where he might actually have come from.” Instead of relying on the “usual clichés,” Crowe’s version will “recalibrate the story … taking a fresh look,” naturally.
More specifically, though, the costumes in Errol Flynn’s 1938 film — which showed Robin Hood prancing around Sherwood Forest in tights — were “not very practical” and Kevin Costner’s Prince of Thieves from 1991 “looks like a Jon Bon Jovi video.” Crowe calls Disney’s animated Robin Hood “the best Robin Hood so far” (until May 12, presumably). Then he threw a telephone at the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks version.
