Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, HRL, robin hood, taron egerton

First Look at Taron Egerton in Robin Hood

Published Sat, 16 Dec 2017 18:25:44 -0600

One of the many movies coming out next year is a retelling of the story of Robin Hood.
Entertainment Weekly got a few first look images and got a chance to talk to various cast members and director Otto Bathurst about the new movie.

"You don't become a legend for 800 years if you've just stolen a few bags of money from rich people to give to the poor," Bathurst told EW on the Budapest set in April. "In my mind, Robin Hood was this sort of seriously militarized anarchist revolutionary, a freedom thinker and a truth seeker. And the more I got into the story, it just became startling how utterly relevant it is to what's going on in society now."

First Look at Taron Egerton in Robin Hood — ROBIN HOOD — Robin (Taron Egerton) and Marian (Eve Hewson)

When it was announced that we were getting another Robin Hood movie, a lot of us reacted with a side-glance, a shrug, or maybe asking why we need another Robin Hood movie. It turns out we're not the only ones, because star Taron Egerton reacted the same way.

"I was approached not long after the first Kingsman movie had come out, and my initial response, to be totally honest, was 'Why?' [But] Otto told me he wanted to do something entirely revisionist, something that can't be tied down to a medieval universe. The first act of the movie, these scenes crusading in Syria, were written like something from The Hurt Locker. It was fantastic, and that was enough to convince me."

The cast is shaping up to be something quite special, with Jamie Foxx playing Little John and the fantastic Ben Mendelsohn playing the Sheriff of Nottingham a role he shares with the late Alan Rickman from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

"I ain't gonna be outdoing him," he admits. "That performance is a delightful tour de force, and I knew and loved the man. But I get a kick out of [sharing it], and I think he would have too."

As for Foxx, he thinks Mendelsohn is terrifying in the role, but what drew him to the project was a new angle.

"He's venomous. So good. There are some people that can just whup your ass. Him, Samuel Jackson, Viola Davis: ass whuppers," says Foxx. "I wanted to be part of it because it's hood, not Robin Hood. He's making it new and interesting, and it gives it weight."

As for Egerton, there was one thing he promised himself he wouldn't do but, at the end of the day, he wasn't entirely able to keep that promise.

"I did initially say the only thing I wouldn't do was wear tights, and the pants did sort of get tighter and tighter… Let's just call them jeggings now."

Can't win at everything.

Summary: A gritty take on the classic Robin Hood story.

Robin Hood, directed by Otto Bathurst, stars Taron Egerton, Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, Jamie Foxx, and Eve Hewson. It will be released on September 18th, 2018.

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