Disney Will Also Make a New Robin Hood Movie With Revisionist ‘Nottingham and Hood’

A while back we reported about Sony’s plans for a Marvel-style universe of ‘Robin Hood’ films because a “shared universe” is the current trend in action-adventure franchises. Not to be outdone, Disney also has their own competing Robin Hood movie now in the works—but this one will be much different, drawing comparisons to their successful ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise … because when you think of Robin Hood and his band of merry men, you definitely think Johnny Depp in a silly hat. Oh no, we just gave them a terrible idea.

According to Deadline, Disney has acquired the spec script for ‘Nottingham and Hood,’ a revisionist take on the beloved, classic character, written by Brandon Barker. While a director has not yet been hired, Disney hopes to turn this new Robin Hood tale into a franchise on par with the ‘Pirates’ films.

This isn’t the first time that Disney has had a competing film based on a classic property in the works: there’s also the new ‘Jungle Book’ film being directed by Jon Favreau, with a pretty fantastic voice cast, including Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, and Christopher Walken. That film is competing with Warner Bros.’ ‘Jungle Book: Origins,’ the directorial debut from Andy Serkis, which boasts a cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, and Cate Blanchett.

Competing properties have become a bit more frequent as studios return to the stockpile to re-imagine and reboot beloved characters and properties. It hardly seems surprising that Disney would want to make a new, live-action Robin Hood film, given their own animated take on the character and their current trend of producing live-action takes on their previously animated classics.

But an entire franchise? I can’t help but go back to James Gunn’s Facebook post about the flaws in the shared universe model, and putting the cart before the horse. Hey Disney, maybe if the first ‘Nottingham and Hood’ film is great and audiences have an overwhelmingly positive response, then we can talk about developing an entire franchise based on it.