Someone at Universal picked up the movie stick and whacked the Robin Hood piñata hard, because there have been a lot of film goodies dropping in the past couple of days. Just yesterday, we were able to show you some new pictures from the movie of Ridley Scott’s next epic adventure tale, including the first look of Cate Blanchett as the radiant Maid Marian.
Today the piñata has dropped the first teaser trailer for Robin Hood and we were sure to pick it up for your viewing pleasure. Robin Hood is the story of a nobleman soldier that comes home from a war, only to find that while his King is away, the Sheriff of Nottingham has joined forces with the despicable Prince John to rule with a heavy taxing hand over the people of Nottingham. Robin Hood becomes an outlaw for the people, robbing from the rich and giving back to the poor; while at the same time dodging the sheriff’s deputies, causing headaches for Prince John and flirting heavily with the beautiful Maid Marian.
Robin Hood is directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and stars Russell Crowe (American Gangster), Cate Blanchett (Return of the King), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Matthew MacFadyen (Frost/Nixon) and William Hurt (Moby Dick).
Watch and enjoy:
The teaser is somewhat of a disappointment for me. It’s becoming apparent that by this teaser and The Clash of the Titans teaser (which we pulled due to bootleg reasons), that Hollywood directors, even season guys like Scott, are leaning heavily on the guitar driven, drum beating, rock opera music to get viewers attention.
Mind you, I don’t dislike rock opera style soundtracks; I just really dig a great classical orchestra playing in the background while being directed by the likes of Horne, Elfman, Zimmer and of course John Williams. Michael Kamen’s original soundtrack for the 1991 Prince of Thieves is a great example of modern classical cinema music and still holds up to this day. I’m hoping that composer Marc Streitenfeld has put together a great original score that will do the story of Robin Hood justice and doesn’t cave into the pressure today to “rock it up”.
That being said, it would appear that Scott is taking a darker approach to the Robin Hood tale and not the light, almost whimsical, approaches from directors in the past. He would have to do something completely different in he wants his version of Robin Hood to stand out from others. The story has been told in dozens of ways, from feature films and Broadway plays to TV movies and TV shows. The vast majority of viewers are very familiar with the story of Robin Hood and it will take more than the names Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott to put people in the seats for this one.
The biggest challenge for Robin Hood, though, is its release date; it debuts only one week after Iron Man 2 opens and if that film is as big a draw as most bloggers and critics are predicting, then a lot of his core demographic will still be watching that film and not his the following week. We could see Robin Hood move up to dominate the late 1st quarter, say late April, or pushed back into a mid-June release where it can soak up some big box office numbers.
What did you think of the Robin Hood teaser trailer and do you think its release date will hurt it?
Robin Hood robs the rich theaters goers of their ticket money and gives it the poor Hollywood studios May 14, 2010.
