Over the past decade or so, two little magic words have gotten Hollywood executives salivating like few others: Public domain. It’s a financier’s dream. A studio can develop a pre-existing property with secure brand recognition in the public sphere and, better yet, it’s all free! The recent influx of roided-up fairy tales such as Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters and Jack The Giant Slayer took advantage of audiences’ familiarity with the childrens’ stories while simultaneously PG-13ifying them for the modern viewer who can’t have a fable without a massive battle between CGI armies.
The latest creative property to undergo a massive reworking in preparation for a bid at monetization will be Robin Hood. We reported back in October that Sony has begun to make moves on a Dark and Gritty™-brand film about the archer of legend, expected to be but the first in a multi-film interconnected universe. I understand the temptation studios must feel when faced with the option to drag a story out over six or seven films, necessitating a fistful of tickets from entrapped audiences, but surely they must have a little self-awareness about this. The irony of using a film about Robin Hood, thief of the rich and patron saint of the poor, to sucker American moviegoers out of $80 or so seems too great to ignore. And yet!
But a new announcement from Deadline today signals that Disney is prepared to shoot a bullseye to split Sony’s arrow down the middle. The Mouse House has laid claim to Nottingham And Hood, a “revisionist” take on the classic legend. Bottle that snark back up! “Revisionist” is a pretty safely open-ended term that could mean any number of things. Maybe a modern retelling that lays down harsh critiques of wealth inequalities in America, or a swashbuckler that returns to the hero’s merrier side after the high-budget gloom of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood.
Except the Deadline item goes on to say that Disney’s new foray into Nottingham has “a Pirates Of The Caribbean tone” and that “the hope is to launch a new adventure franchise that fits Disney’s global brand.” The word “brand,” not quite coincidentally, rhymes with “bland.” Executives should hammer this into PR reps like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross: Talk about brand, movie sounds bland. Now it’s just a contest between Disney and Sony to see which swollen-budget Robin Hood picture will make it to screens first, though it hardly matters. In two years’ time, when this has all been forgotten and studios ready their competing King Arthur reboots, we can have this whole conversation all over again.