I guess you guys don't know this, but this movie was supposed to be totally different until Ridley Scott got his hands on it.
The initial script was called Nottingham, and this movie was about the sheriff of Nottingham, except the take was that he was the good guy, while Robin Hood the outlaw, was the bad guy. It was all about how the sheriff was fighting the corrupt lords behind the scenes, and kept on being the hero despite being vilified by the public. Robin Hood meanwhile, was some evil person who took advantage of his public affection to fill his own pockets and let his evil nature run its course. In the end when Hood finally died, the sheriff as a hero was left unsung.
It was an excellent script and before production, that was the film Scott intended to make.
Russell Crowe was supposed to be the embattled sheriff, not Robin Hood. It is why they didn't pick a younger actor to play Robin Hood, because Crowe was never intended for the part.
But then I guess they did some testing and whatever, and discovered that people just could NOT handle the concept of an evil Robin Hood, and a good sherrif.
It just speaks volumes to me about the nightmares script creators go through. Often, by the time studios are done with scripts, they are totally Hollywoodified. When producers buy a script, they normally just hire people who are specialists at butchering scripts to make them more Hollywood.
I guess it is understandable though, when a movie costs 150 million to make, you want to protect your investment. And often times script writers reach compromises with their directors.
But at times scripts are totally butchered, and lose their originality completely -- like here.
