Robin Hood is a film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe.The story of the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and challenge the crown to alter the balance of power between the king and all of his subjects. And whether outlaw or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.

Cast

Russell Crowe plays Robin Hood; it is his fifth collaboration with Scott. Cate Blanchett as Lady Marion, a strong-willed, intelligent Marion.Mark Strong as Sir Godfrey, King John’s henchman. Oscar Isaac as King John of England, younger brother of Richard.Mark Lewis Jones as Thomas Longstride, Robin Hood’s father.Mark Addy as Friar Tuck.William Hurt as William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.Danny Huston as King Richard the Lionheart.Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine, King Richard and King John’s mother. Max von Sydow as Sir Walter Loxley.Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham.Kevin Durand as Little John.Léa Seydoux as Isabella of Angoulême.Scott Grimes as Will Scarlet, Robin’s nephew.Alan Doyle as Allan A’Dayle.

Production

Principal photography on Scott’s latest epic began in April 2009. Producer Grazer commends that the director quickly earned his on-set epithet. “We called him ‘The General,’” he offers. “Ridley Scott is that kind of charging-forward general of our generation in filmmaking. There was once John Ford, and there have been others, but certainly Ridley is a gladiator himself.”

One of Scott’s longtime partners, production designer Arthur Max, was charged with the Herculean task of building medieval England—re-creating as accurately as possible life in the villages and towns, as well as the grandeur of the castles from the period.

The production designer was tasked with giving Scott the experience of what it was like to live in England during this era. The two men drew on a wealth of resource material from museums, libraries, actual reconstructed environments in England and the Dordogne in France, as well as some Iberian villages in the Pyrénées that stand virtually as they did in the Middle Ages.

One of the most important sites was the setting for Nottingham Village, the place where Robin comes to return Sir Loxley’s sword to his father. Built on the Hampton Estate, near Guildford in Surry, the set was ensconced on a private estate with ancient oaks, rolling fields and stunning topography. The land also offered a pine forest, a stream and a bog, and thus a wealth of shooting options for Scott. “Our primary requirement was a beautiful landscape,” says Max. “Finding the location was a great piece of luck.”

“We built the entire Nottingham Village, which is more than 50 buildings,” explains the designer, “most of them thatched and timber and made from wattle, a form of mud construction.” The buildings he describes were built around a town square, with a grain store, a tavern, a tithe barn and a church—as well as houses and hovels of all shapes and sizes—stretching out beyond the town center.

Max tasked his men and women to build a mill with a working water wheel, in addition to some ruined gates that would serve as a continuity link to another location about a 20-minute drive away. Sticklers for accuracy, they planted (and grew over many months) an orchard. Max explains that for the purposes of the story, they “burned it down in the end. Not entirely, but quite a few buildings. The rest was enhanced with CGI. We had to be very, very careful because most of the buildings were set within the oak trees, which were precious, but we managed to do controlled burns there.”

Another portion of the Tower of London, the Royal Dock, was built at Virginia Water in Surrey. Max and his team created an actual jetty, as well as the Royal Barge that brings Robin and his men, after many years away from their home, bearing Richard’s crown to Eleanor.

The interior of the Tower, built on sound stages at Shepperton, was every bit as impressive as its exterior, with the same staggering depth of detail seen throughout the picture. A composite set, it included an enormous corridor that leads to a giant throne room, off of which could be found the massive bedroom chambers for Prince John and Queen Eleanor. The sets were modeled in proportion and shape from rooms Scott, Max and the team had observed when they had scouted existing British castles.

Also built at Shepperton was the interior of Peper Harow, seat of the Loxley family. This space was modeled on a manor farm of the early 13th century that had been seen in Shropshire by the scouts. That team fell in love with the Great Hall, detail, character and the patina of age it showed.

Practical reasons prohibited them from actually filming in Shropshire, so Scott’s crew built it on a sound stage at Shepperton. The spaces that Lady Marion and Sir Walter inhabit—including the Great Hall, bedrooms, kitchens and tack rooms—were all crafted from scratch. Max’s team grafted this interior onto Oxenford Farm, an exterior manor farm near Surrey. To complete the look, they added onto the existing structure several barn buildings, a fortified gate, multiple hovels and another water wheel. Thus, Peper Harow was reborn.

The cast was in awe of the efforts of their production designer and his massive team of artisans. Blanchett sums their feelings: “Arthur is truly wonderful and is really committed to preserving these crafts in England. He’s very passionate about the loss of skill sets. I marvel at the level of care that he has employed in the creation of all of the buildings in the Nottingham village set.”

Working every day with anywhere between five and a dozen cameras allowed Scott and DP Mathieson(cinematographer) to film scenes with full coverage in minimal takes; it truly enabled the director to generate the remarkable energy he brings to his storytelling. With multiple camera setups, Scott also consciously avoided tiring the actors, crucial on a film in which they faced immense physical challenges. Knowing that they would often be wearing heavy, uncomfortable costumes and shooting in cold and wet weather conditions, Scott decided that every shot had to count.

Halfway through the shoot, the production relocated to Wales and to Freshwater Beach in West Pembrokeshire to shoot the epic battle scenes as the French, under the command of King Philip, seek to invade English soil and reclaim the land. It was a vast undertaking that marked the climactic scenes of the film, and the filmmakers assembled more than 1,500 cast and crew to pull it off.

The team undertook an ambitious series of sequences, with nine standard cameras, a steadicam, a Wescam and a helicopter contributing to Scott and Mathieson’s vision. “In Australia we’d say, ‘That’s bigger than Ben-Hur,’” laughs Crowe, “and that’s how it felt.”

Lensing in this uncontrollable environment for nearly two weeks in weather conditions that ranged from unexpected blasts of heat to torrential rain, the crew fought its own battle with the tide coming in at approximately a meter a minute. This required them to keep relocating 1,500 people and 150 vehicles up a beach that is half a mile long. For the actors playing Robin’s Merry Men, however, the epic battle sequence was worth all the hardship. “What we did in Wales, I was scared out of my mind every single day there,” laughs Scott Grimes, who plays the flame-haired Will Scarlet. “We had more than 100 horses riding side by side, galloping down the beach, and we had no idea where the cameras were. It felt like we were in the war. The whole shoot was incredible.”

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