There’s a new Sheriff in town, and he’s one of the most compelling actors of his day. Ben Mendelsohn’s name has been attached to the forthcoming Robin Hood Origins as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Otto Bathurst is picking up the reins for this ‘gritty’ new telling of the folk legend, and Lionsgate are looking for the team to gel sufficiently that a franchise may well follow.
Taron Egerton is our Robin of Loxley, who will be protrayed in this new film as ‘a war-hardened crusader who joins a Moorish commander in an audacious revolt against the corrupt English monarchy.’ The corrupt English monarchy will, according to Variety, be given a presence in the form of Ben Mendlesohn.
Mendelsohn will shortly be enjoying all sorts of plaudits for his sterling turn as Orson Krennic in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (our glowing review is here). He will also soon be seen in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.
Jamie Foxx has also signed up to play Little John, who is described as ‘a battle hardened but war weary veteran of The Crusades who starts out distrustful of Robin Hood, and then warms to the young hero.’ He’ll be joined by Eve Hewson as Maid Marian and Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlett.
The cast is all there, and Bathurst’s form on TV, with standout episodes of Black Mirror and Peaky Blinders, is solid. Recent go-arounds with the Merry Men include Ridley Scott’s 2010 film with Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner’s 90s fanfare Prince of Thieves. There’s enough mileage in the legend for retells over and over, and the casting of Mendelsohn certainly adds a menacing antagonist to the film.
Robin Hood Origins is set to be released in the US on the 23rd of March 2018.
Robin Hood Origins Movie Synopsis
Origins picks up with Robin Hood as he returns from fighting in The Crusades and finds that Sherwood Forest is rife with corruption and evil. He forms a band of outlaws and they take matters into their own hands. It certainly sounds like an interesting enough interpretation…
