Hugh Jackman's Robin Hood Is A "Murderous Outlaw" In The Upcoming 'The Death Of Robin Hood' Film
Hugh Jackman shared key details about his upcoming A24 film The Death of Robin Hood, which is directed by Michael Sarnoski.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Jackman claimed the film will discuss the theme of power, “What I love so much about Mike’s vision of Robin Hood is that the script delivered power, and it examines how power can be used for good or bad.”
As for his version of Robin Hood, Jackman shared, “Robin Hood is a real man in our story. With all the scars, the pain, the regret, and yes, the love. Mike’s story has weight to it. For me, it’s beautiful and human.”
Sarnoski also shared that this version of Robin Hood is actually a villainous criminal, “He was this murderous outlaw who did a lot of terrible things, and was kind of monstrous. But he’s lived long enough to see this folklore get created about him. He’s figuring out how he feels about that, about being portrayed as a hero when he knows what he really was.”
As for the film’s tone, he shared, “It’s probably more intense than you’re expecting. It almost gets towards feeling like a war movie. Fighting back in those days was brutal; it wasn’t people dancing around and fencing. It was people in the mud trying to crack each other’s heads open with a shovel.”
While Sarnoski claims viewers will “be carried along to understand what this version is, because the performances are so specific and so different from what you’ve seen before,” he also shared that it based on “five early ballads of Robin Hood that were first written [as the story] was passed down as oral tradition. And they’re really brutal. He is portrayed as a hero of the common man, but they’re still somewhat horrifying, in the way that old folk tales are.”
“There’s an old quote about Robin that sort of says he’s this murderous bandit who the common folk have decided to glorify, and I wanted to examine someone who was going through that in their lifetime, and trying to grapple with the role of storytelling and their actual identity,” he concluded.
As Clown World disintegrates, I think we can expect a lot more of these "Opposing the Establishment Bad, Bad, Very Bad" narratives issuing forth from Hollywood.
Watch the Errol Flynn movie instead. It captures the myths of Robin Hood perfectly. Or check out Men in Tights for some decent Robin Hood jokes.