It's a little ridiculous how many Robin Hood films are currently in development; we're got HOOD from Sony, which is said to be in the vein of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, Disney has NOTTINGHAM & HOOD, which will be similar to their PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise, and Warner Bros. has one in the works as well.
Today we bring news from ROBIN HOOD: ORIGINS, a gritty take on the character coming to us from Lionsgate. The studio is obviously looking to be the first out of the gate as Deadline has reported that a director may have been secured. Lionsgate has met with many filmmakers over the last few weeks but it looks like they're set their sights on Otto Bathurst. The director is primarily known for his TV work, having set the tone for the excellent BBC series Peaky Blinders, so this would be an exciting project for Bathurst. Joby Harold has written the script and is no stranger to the world of gritty medieval franchises having also penned the script for Guy Ritchie's KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE: KING ARTHUR.
ROBIN HOOD: ORIGINS will take inspirations from THE DARK KNIGHT and find "Robin Hood returning from fighting in The Crusades and finding that Sherwood Forest is rife with corruption and evil. He forms a band of outlaws and they take matters into their own hands. This is a gritty take, with no felt hats." That sounds a little bit like Ridley Scott's ROBIN HOOD, but 2010 was five years ago; memories are brief obviously. Otto Bathurst is currently in in pre-production on THREE SECONDS, a prison thriller starring Luke Evans and David Oyelowo, but as Lionsgate is looking to get production started on ROBIN HOOD: ORIGINS by early 2016, Bathurst will have to get a move on.