Getting way ahead of it all but my thoughts drifted off to 2010 this morning and what movies await. I'm mildly curious about what Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett will bring to the millionth version of Robin Hood (2010). What is there to add? What angle can feel fresh? So out of curiousity a quick peek back at Kevin Reynold's 1991 blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves which I've always disliked, primarily for its lack of tonal cohesion and for its absurd length (155 minutes to tell a story everyone knows by heart already?) But I understand some people love it.
Speaking of quick peeks, 77 and ½ minutes in Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) gets one.
Offscreen Voice: "I told you you can't go down there!"What's causing her astonishment down there? Why it's Kevin Costner's infamous butt double!!! Why any star would need a butt double for a scene filmed in long shot through a waterfall is a head scratcher. Eighteen years later it's still a prudish mystery.
Will Cate's mouth go similarly agape for Russell's arse in the next version? We'll find out in 159 days.
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Cate's Maid Marianne will be dressed as a man most of the time in the movie, so I don't think she'll be able to publicly express the same amazement with Russel's behind, or otherwise she'll uncover her disguise :)))
:( I wish i could have seen Cate in Streetcar, which is at BAM right now...the joys of not living in the US!
Sorry to hijack this (yeah yeah, semi-excited for Robin Hood too, etc etc) - but DC critics just announced their nominees - and they're the first group of the season to announce five-deep in each of the major categories. A first taste of what, perhaps, is to come?...
So the biggest WTF is The Blind Side - pulling in Best Actress AND Best Adapted Screenplay. Oh gosh, if it makes the a 10-wide Best Picture shortlist at the Oscars, we're all doomed...
Otherwise - Supporting Actress - Farmiga, Kendrick, Mo'Nique, Moore, Morton are all in. I can see this being Oscar's final five (Nine is seeming more and more dead in the water.)
Actress - Streep for J&J - I was actually worried about her prosepcts. But no longer. Hope they pull another Kate this year and she wins... Along with the aforementioned Bullock (eek!), Mulligan, Sidibe and, er, Rudolph. I can see Mirren being subsituted for Rudolph for Oscar.
Actor - Clooney, Firth, Freeman, Renner and MORTENSEN! So happy for him - hope he sustains momentum. The other 4 look likely for Oscar.
Supporting Actor - Harrelson, Mackie, Molina, Tucci (for Bones), Waltz. Most up in the air acting category. Not sure if Mackie and Molina will transfer (and they wouldn't really deserve to either). McKay is in DC's Breakthrough category and he'll be Oscar nominated, I'm sure.
In all, big boosts for Up in the Air, Hurt Locker, Precious, Inglourious, Up, The Road (which also nabs Joe Penhall a well-deserved Adapted Screenplay nod), 500 Days for Original Screenplay, etc...
The only face I can see anybody making is "ew, dude, please, put your pants back on". I mean, Russel Crowe has been losing and gaining weight and losing again and gaining again in the past years, that I just cannot imagine his buttocks being that good looking anymore.
So, I guess, yay for butt doubles. ;-)
@AMIR -- i never cover the critics groups that do the "nominees" first, primarily because it would take too much time and virtually no one notices when critics do this and nobody gets any boost from that sort of thing. People only care about the winners and even then with the critics groups people only care about the winners if they same names crop up repeatedly. You have to be a major group like the Globes to have your nominees mean something to people. so i'll wait until they announce their winners.
@Dezmond -- Cate can't pretend to be a gay man? oops. wrong era.
I only love two things about this film (which I agree was a total disaster): Morgan Freeman as Azeem and the score by the late Michael Kamen.
@Henry - agree on Kamen's score. Otherwise, that movie was a pile of poo. Don't care about YARM with Crowe or anybody, either.
Nathaniel, are you mad at me? Apologies if so. Was just trying to have some speculative fun as diversion from the master's-thesis-hell which I'm currently living...
No one will do it better than Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland - Robin Hood is a story for the Technicolor dream-factory style of the early studio system, and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is the definitive Technicolor swashbuckler of the era. (Although my favorite Curtiz-de Havilland-Flynn collaboration will always be "Captain Blood".)
I adored this film when it came out. It had Christian Slater, and I was so in that demographic of girl. But I can well imagine that another viewing now would reveal just how abysmal it is.
Does anyone remember that other RH adaptation that was released around the same time (with Uma Thurman?) - was that any better?
amir -- no no. not at all. carry on. ;)
Lyn -- my god I had TOTALLY forgotten about that film. And I never did see it despite my Umaphilia. weird. perhaps i should have a robin hood marathon before the new movie opens.
Can't speak for anyone else, but as a long-time Russell Crowe fan, I'd like to get a look at his behind!
And I think he's going to bring some real depth to Robin Hood.
Aw, no love for Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham?
I have a soft spot in my heart for this movie because I was 14 when it came out and I was borderline obsessed with it. True, a lot of that had to do with the Michael Kamen score (first movie soundtrack I bought, I think), but I also adored Morgan Freeman as Azeem and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. She was a great, feisty Maid Marian, this particular scene notwithstanding. Actually, I thought the casting, apart from Kevin Costner and his abysmal accent, was quite good. And I still think the last big action scene (the attack on Nottingham's castle) was very effectively filmed. But then I haven't seen the movie in a while.
I adored this film when it came out. It had Christian Slater, and I was so in that demographic of girl. But I can well imagine that another viewing now would reveal just how abysmal it is.
I was in that same demographic. I mean what girl could possibly resist Christian Slater after seeing him in Heathers. Yes, the movie probably sucks now, but I still look back fondly at the "Robin!" part that I copied whenever the video of "Everything I Do (I Do It for You), that song which still gets steady play on the AC stations around here, and of course Christian Slater in the movie.
Well I did love Alan Rickman's totally over the top performance, but I think out of all the big name stars from that movie, but out of the other big name actors except perhaps MEM, I thought Slater did the best job in doing what was expected from the role. Freeman did okay, but he's done that whole magic/wise mentor role much better, and seemed really bored imo. Kevin Costner was well Kevin Costner.
Does anyone remember that other RH adaptation that was released around the same time (with Uma Thurman?) - was that any better?
Yes, I watched that on television. I don't even know if it came out to the theaters, but I know I watched on my Fox station here either the same year as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves or I guess afterwards. It wasn't actually too bad. Of course, I was pretty young at the time, and haven't seen it since then, so it could maybe it doesn't hold up either. From what I remember though, that guy from Sleeping With the Enemy, was a much better Robin Hood than Kevin Costner, and he and Uma Thurman had a lot more chemistry than Costner and MEM.
I would recommend it for any Umiphiliac because it certainly couldn't be any worse than Batman and Robin or The Avengers.
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