Nottingham

If there’s one project of mine that soured me to screen writing more than any other it has to be Nottingham, the last script I wrote before returning once back more to comics. (Although the pendulum has swung back since then a couple of times.)

Still, the fact is that getting a movie to the screen wastes so much time, money, and creative energy, only for the script to usually die on the vine. I was hired by a great producer and nice guy, Eric Newman, to write this script. It is a sequel to Robin Hood, if you will, but set some ten years later and with the Sheriff of Nottingham portrayed in a more favorable light. The feel of this film was an action-comedy very much in the vein of Richard Lester’s Three Musketeers and Four Musketeer movies which where a huge source of inspiration. Added to that is a mystery the two mis-matched heroes must solve together. And with the heroes being deliberately older than in other versions, there was talk of trying to get Clive Owen for the Sheriff and Hugh Grant or Jude Law for Robin Hood. I have to say at the time it was all very exciting and seemed a genuine possibility of happening.

However, unbeknownst to Eric, who had Universal Pictures funding the development of the script, the talent agency William Morris (or perhaps CAA, I forget) was putting together a package of their clients for a Robin Hood project too. It starred Russell Crowe, with director Ridley Scott and a script from Brian Helgeland. Universal snapped that up instead, and that was that. In the way Hollywood works that killed my script’s chances of getting made. Which in turn killed my enthusiasm for screen writing for a time. However I remain genuinely proud this script and hope you enjoy it.

It’s certainly more fun than Crowe’s somber effort.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. All rights belong to the respective owners.