How do you top the fantastic one, two punch of Russell Crowe (the single best actor alive today bar none) and Leonardo DiCaprio in the upcoming “Body of Lies”? You do a movie with a one, two punch of Russel Crowe and Russell Crowe. That’s Ridley Scott’s genius idea (no sarcasm intended) for his upcoming Robin Hood film “Nottingham” where Crowe will apparently play BOTH Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham.
The good folks over at MTV gives us this:
The news comes straight from the helmer himself, with Scott revealing “He’s playing both!” exclusively to MTV News during an interview for his new film “Body of Lies,” which co-stars Crowe. While Scott held additional details close to his chest — saying they would take too long to describe — he did exclaim that Crowe’s dual roles would be “a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes.”
I’ve got to admit I would have never imagined a property like Robin Hood as a type of film where you could have one actor play two different roles… but if anyone can convincingly portray two completely different people in the same film then it’s Russell Crowe, who is hands down the most diverse actor in the business with the most pure range we’ve seen in a long long time.
BUT… one potential downside in a gimmick like this is that the gimmick (Crowe playing the two lead roles) could overshadow the movie’s story itself. People start talking about “that movie where Crowe plays Hood and the Sheriff” instead of about “Nottingham”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very interested to see how this “gimmick” plays out… I just hope it doesn’t overshadow the film itself.
