Russell Crowe to play his own worst enemy in Ridley Scott's 'Notttingham'

In the most peculiar casting rumour in a year packed with them (Will Smith as Captain America? Cher as Catwoman?) MTV’s movie blog is reporting that Russell Crowe will be appearing in Ridley Scott’s revisionist take on the Robin Hood legend as both Robin Hood and his arch nemesis, the Sherriff of Nottingham.

IMDB's entry for the movie currently has Crowe listed to play 'Sir Robert Tornham'

Scott's new Robin Hood  movie – to be titled Nottingham– explores the possibility that perhaps the Sherrif wasn’t such a bad chap after all, and that Hood is really the villain of the story.

It’s going to take an incredible make-up job on Russell Crowe, a gigantic suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience, or the silliest ‘separated twins’ backstory since Jean Claude van Damme stopped making kung fu action versions of The Prince and the Pauper to make a convincing Robin Hood tale where both the hero and his arch enemy look like the antipodean bruiser.

 Crowe, who was recently being mentioned in connection with another British literary legend when he was tipped to play Dr.Watson in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie, is without question one of the most charismatic actors of generation but the sheer cheek of this gambit smells more like hubris than commercial good sense.

 Of course we won’t know for certain until the movie’s released: The original planned release date was November 2009, but that’s already slipped and there’s no current scheduled date on file. With Crowe playing the two roles, it’s bound to take just that little bit longer.

Comments

[Dr Funfrock]

Just a thought... No twins needed. There's another plot twist that this casting suggests; that the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood are one and the same person. It's a theory that relies heavily on the assumption that a lot of misdirection has gone on throughout the development of this film, but then it wouldn't be the first time a film-maker has pulled off something of the sort.

Unlikely, of course, but the possibility amuses me.

[sepehr]

Russell Crowe is the best actor of all time and will win his second oscar(that should have actualy won for a beautiful mind)for this role

[David Scanlon]

It sounds rather silly to me to let Russell Crowe play both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Unless there is a very good reason in the plot I think it is a very bad idea.