Russell Crowe's Robin Hood movie hits delay

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Sheriff of Nottingham will not be chasing Robin Hood into Sherwood Forest this fall.

Production on "Nottingham," a revisionist film set to star Russell Crowe as a sympathetic sheriff, has been indefinitely postponed because of script concerns, location logistics and the current labor unrest.

Director Ridley Scott's Universal Pictures project had been aiming for a mid-August start date, one of a handful of high-profile productions pushing ahead despite the stand-off in contract talks between the studios and the Screen Actors Guild.

In explaining the production shutdown, Universal cited the "cloud of the SAG strike" as one of three factors that led to the postponement.

It also said that "the film's forest locations need to be green," which suggests even if other factors were to be resolved later this year, the production could not now resume until next spring.

The third key factor was the project's script by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, with a rewrite by Brian Helgeland. "The current version of the screenplay," the studio said, "is not yet where the studio and the filmmakers want it to be in terms of realizing the full value of the story.

"Universal could have moved forward with one of these challenges, but the confluence of the three caused the studio to reconsider and take the time for all conditions to be optimal."

The statement said that Universal, Imagine, Scott and Crowe all remain committed to the project. "Nottingham" had been on track to be released November 6, 2009.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter