MovieChat Forums > Robin Hood (2010) Discussion > Cast for a proper Robin Hood film

Cast for a proper Robin Hood film

posted 13 years ago by strangerfromuk
44 replies | jump to latest

I'm sure this film is good (i haven't seen it yet) but i'm getting fed up of Robin Hood films that don't have an English actor playing Robin Hood - is there something wrong with English actors???

If they did a proper film with a mainly British cast then i would go for the following cast:-

Robin Hood - Sean Bean
Little John - Ray Stevenson
Will Scarlett - Tommy Flanagan
Much - Andy Serkis
Alan A'Dale - Scott Adkins
Friar Tuck - Ray Winstone
Maid Marian - Rachel Weisz
King John - Michael Sheen
Sherrif of Nottingham - Mads Mikkelsen

And just to keep the PC brigade happy i would include a scene in a foreign prison with Oded Fehr cast as an Arab lord & Omid Djalili as the prison warden.

Yes i know the actor playing the Sherrif is Danish but i think he would be a very good choice as Sherrif.

[–] standrkm 13 years ago

As an American here are my picks. A bunch a Uk guys. I am so tired of fake accents and why use them when you got plenty of dudes with great ability already? The thing is though it's Robin Hood, and it's not some real life Braveheart or Last of the Mohicans or something. Anyway I love epic films, i do notice fake accents, and I do appreciate actors of all nationalities. I would like to see a Connery, that French guy from Ronin, the guy with the scar on his face in braveheart, the English fellow in edge of darkness, in a film like this. I don't think a few actors fit in very well in this, though it was never meant to be an oscar winner lol. I hope

If reincarnated,I'd return to Earth as a killer virus to lower population levels.
-Prince Phillip

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] wildcardgal 13 years ago

Okay, ya got me. From your subject I was expecting another 'fix the horrible casting' post and this sort of was that. But I would watch the cast you've named, just to see Sean Bean and Oded Fehr in the same scene ... though I might suggest casting an Arabian actor rather than an Israeli one ....

Let slip the Determined Kitten of Doom!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] hillbillyfisherman 13 years ago

You lost me at Rachel Weisz, Good Actress...doesn't fit the part.

"Is it dead?"-David Della Rocco

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] hillbillyfisherman 13 years ago

I didn't think Blanchett fit it either...she's a little too Posh. Rachel Weisz does good in an action film but she just doesn't have that classic british look that you would need for a Role like Marian.

"Is it dead?"-David Della Rocco

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] syntinen 13 years ago

Rachel Weisz is a classic Central European/Jewish beauty, and there weren't an awful lot of those about in 12th-century England.

[–] devansarty-1 13 years ago

'A proper film with a mainly British cast' ...

'Carry on Robin'

ROBIN – Jim Dale
MUCH – Charles Hawtrey
PRINCE JOHN – Kenneth Williams
GUY of GUISBORNE – Peter Gilmore
SHERIFF of NOTTINGHAM – Bill Maynard
LITTLE JOHN – Sid James
FRIAR TUCK – Peter Butterworth
MAID MARIAN – Amanda Barrie
BESS her maid – Barbara Windsor
QUEEN ELEANOR – Joan Simms

Taking painting to the pictures ...
www.thepicturepalace.co.uk

[–] hillbillyfisherman 13 years ago

I'm not saying a realistic medieval british look. because then we would need a tubby chick with only half of her teeth. But movies have always had this pasty drawn look to british chicks and it's a comfort zone for most.

"Is it dead?"-David Della Rocco

[–] zerowing-1 13 years ago

Nice cast but I'd like a younger guy for Robin, such as Paul Bettany.

[–] jenx42 7 years ago

Hey, he was the first person I thought of!

[–] AdvocatusDiaboli 13 years ago

Robin of Loxley - Ewan McGregor
Lady Marion - Marion Cotillard

Little John - Ray Stevenson
Will Scarlett - Henry Cavill
Alan A'Dale - Kevin McKidd
Friar Tuck - Brendan Gleeson
Much - Jamie Bell

King John (Lackland) - Richard Armitage
Isabella of Angouleme - Melanie Laurent

Sheriff of Nottingham - James Purefoy
Guy of Gisbourne - Cillian Murphy

King Richard (Lionheart) - Jason Isaacs
Eleanor of Aquitaine - Jane Birkin

[–] emil_tiwaz1022 12 years ago

I really don't see why there is a need to re-cast Eleanor of Aquitaine. Dame Eileen Atkins was superb and suited the part tremendously. Vanessa Redgrave was the original pick but I think Dame Eileen is even better.

[–] syntinen 12 years ago

I suspect because although Eileen Atkins is a great actress (a) she is totally English-looking and (b) you can see that she was never in her life a great beauty. So she's radically miscast as the legendarily beautiful, southern French Eleanor.

[–] joe_538 10 years ago

I like your cast best. Don't know about Henry Cavill as Will Scarlet though, he's usually depicted as a slighter fellow.

[–] boy07002 13 years ago

I like the Sean Bean and Rachel Weiz suggestions! That's brillant! My first pick for robin hood wood be Orlando Bloom, but Sean Bean is amazing too! I wouldn't mind that at all.

[–] tken84 13 years ago

Sean Bean is a great actor and would have been a great choice 10 or 15 years ago, but he is far too old to play Robin Hood now - as evidenced by the aged, portly Eddard Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones

[–] Halftoncheeseburger 13 years ago

That, and the fact that Sean Bean's character screws up and dies in every role.

He's awesome in GOT, he'd be a great Marshall or King Richard.

[–] decroissance 11 years ago

I don't see Sean Bean as the Robin Hood type either. Plus he's too old.

I was going to suggest Richard Armitage -- thought I was brilliant until I looked it up and saw that he played Robin Hood in a British TV Series which looks kind of questionable!

Has anyone seen it?

Maybe he's too much of a dark and brooding type anyway.

[–] pol-edra 11 years ago

He doesn't play Robin in that TV series, he plays Guy of Guisbourne. And he's brilliant, a perfect example of a bad guy you hate to love. Completely steals the show from Jonas Armstrong, who plays an excellent Robin Hood but can't compete with Armitage's smouldering good looks and twisted characters.
You should give the series a try: it's fun, much in the line of the BBC's Merlin, if that helps. Or Sinbad. It's the same kind of fantasy and fun for the whole family. The cast is flawless, especially Keith Allen as the Sheriff and main villain - a joy to watch. Just stay away from the imdb board to avoid spoilers, some of them are quite big and could really make you want to quit the show. I watched the first two seasons in marathon mode and then waited for several years to watch season 3 heartlessly, because I made the mistake of visiting the board before I had seen all of season 2.

Hope this helps!

"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."

[–] decroissance 11 years ago

Why, yes it does help. I'll see if I can find it. Thanks!

[–] wizkid79 13 years ago

If they did a proper film no one would play Robin Hood, since he did not exist, his name comes from "robbing hood" a collective name for outlaws.

[–] syntinen 13 years ago

Not true. Medieval records over several centuries and much of England contain references to individuals (not groups) named as "Robin Hood", "Rob Hood", "Hob Hood", and other spelling variants, which make it look as though the name was a traditional alias for an outlaw. But "Robin", "Rob" and "Hob" are all familiar forms of "Robert", and nothing to do with the activity of robbing.

[–] wizkid79 13 years ago

There are mentions of a Robin / Robyn Hood and a Robert Hood, yes, but these two names are not the same. Plus they are from the beginning of the 14th century, and there are references to this myth that predate these, such as Robert Hod, with one 'o'. Still, there is basically no evidence that either of these men were outlaws. This excludes them from being Robin Hood, who is supposedly an outlaw. Some outlaws did use this name later, when the legend already existed, but that does not make the real deal either.

The Robin Hood these movies are based on did not exist. Stephen Thomas Knight wrote about this quite extensively.

[–] syntinen 13 years ago

There are mentions of a Robin / Robyn Hood and a Robert Hood, yes, but these two names are not the same.

Of course they are! Saying they aren't is like saying that, for example, "Stephen and Amanda Brown" and "Steve and Mandy Brown" aren't the same names.

As for "Robert Hod, with one 'o'": in Middle English the everyday word "hood" meaning "head covering" could be spelt in at least 15 ways: hod, hode, hoode, hud, hude, hood, houd, hoyd, hodde, whod, whode, whood, whoode, whodde, wood. And when the word was used as a surname it might have been randomly written down in any of these ways - indeed in the Middle Ages spelling was so random that it wouldn't be strange or unusual for the same scribe to use two different spellings in the same document.

[–] wizkid79 13 years ago

They are not the same in the sense that they are not the same person, and not in the sense like 'Robert' and 'Bob' are different names.

I fail to see the relevance of the variants in this case. It does not affect whether or not there was a real Robin Hood, or not. Real as in the way he is portrayed by these movies, and not as in there was an actual person with this name, or a variant of it.

Edited later: In case you were only arguing with the origin of the name and not that there was no Robin Hood like the one in this movie, you might be right about that one.

[–] syntinen 13 years ago

I said:

Medieval records over several centuries and much of England contain references to individuals (not groups) named as "Robin Hood", "Rob Hood", "Hob Hood", and other spelling variants, which make it look as though the name was a traditional alias for an outlaw.

I can't imagine how anybody could read that to mean that they were all the same person! Clearly, these are a lot of different people using (or being referred to by) the same name.

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

A modern equivalent would be to call someone a 'Jack the Lad'. This does not mean that all persons so designated are really called Jack or John.

Seingner Conrat, tot per vostr'amor chan
http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/knightlife

[–] 13 years ago

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