Rethinking the tights thing
The fat man in Sherwood Forest? Russell Crowe hides his old-man paunch in RobinHood
- Russell Crowe can't stand for anyone better-looking than him sharing screentime.
- No, that's not a "Gladiator" still, though we see how you could make thatmistake.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights, it is not. In fact, it's more like Gladiator: Guy in Jeans by the looks of Ridley Scott's interpretation.
The new better-be-blockbuster Robin Hood, which stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett as Robin Hood and Maid Marion, respectively, premiered at Cannes this week. A few reviews have been buried beneath the fashion coverage leaking out of the famed film festival, and they're not enthusiastic.
This beefier (we'll elaborate on that in a moment) and less philanthropic Robin (Crowe says his character is motivated by self-interest, namely his desire for Marion) will hit theaters tomorrow.
The lukewarm reviews are probably to be expected from a film plagued by on-set feuding and a script that's been reworked and rewritten several times over — supposedly to give a body-conscious Crowe even more screen time.
He's notoriously difficult to work with, but my favorite rumor coming out of the Robin Hood set is that Crowe had Sienna Miller — who was originally slated to play Maid Marion — replaced because her young, nubile frame looked "laughable" next to his scruffy old-man paunch. (Crowe put on nearly 65 pounds for Body of Lies, in which he played an intelligence operative who did business largely from the comfort of a chair).
There is also talk that he tried to get his director fired, to no avail. Though one would think that after five projects together, Scott would know how to handle the touchy Aussie.
With a reported $237 million sunk and some of the strongest cast and crew in the industry, does it matter? What do you think, will you see the epic?