It's the 12th century all over again as armor-clad knights ride into battle in the English countryside. Or so it appears from some new photos of the filming of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood in the Daily Mail.
The movie, originally titled Nottingham, has been undergoing extensive script revisions, and has had another significant cast change. Vanessa Redgrave, who had been slated to play Eleanor of Aquitaine, bowed out due to the tragic death of her daughter Natasha Richardson in March.
She has been replaced by Eileen Atkins, who told the Mail that she's had some adjusting to do because of dramatic changes in her lines, and difficulties overcoming a serious bird phobia. This is a bit of a problem because her role requires her to hold, and perhaps feed dead mice to, a large owl.
As for Russell Crowe, who stars as Robin Hood, a producer says:
He doesn't have the old Robin Hood tights. He's got armour. He's very medieval. He looks, if anything, more like he did in Gladiator than anything we're used to seeing with Robin Hood.
Not too surprising a choice given how successful Scott and Crowe were collaborating on that historical epic. And of course they wouldn't want this reinterpretation to be in any way confused with Mel Brooks' satirical take on the genre, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.