Remember all that talk of Blood Meridian being Ridley Scott’s next film after Penetration aka Body of Lies? Forget about it. Now that he’s attached himself to Ethan Reiff’s and Cyris Voris’s Nottingham, a revisionist retelling of the Robin Hood legend intended as a star vehicle for Russell Crowe (as the not-so-bad-after-all Sheriff of Nottingham), it’s obvious that the old pro is keeping his options wide open. And you know what? When you’ve got that kind of clout and you’re closing in on your seventieth birthday, you can afford to sit on six or seven high-profile projects for close to year. And you can also drive fandom nuts once a year by intimating that you wouldn’t mind making another Alien movie.
If I had any sway over Ridley’s decision making, I’d nudge him in the direction of Blood Meridian, the Cormac McCarthy novel being adapted by William Monahan. Being a betting man, however, I’m going to slide my chips in the direction of Nottingham, mostly because he’ll be due for a Russell Crowe movie after teaming with Leonardo DiCaprio on Penetration aka Body of Lies (which one day will have a settled-upon title). This is good news for the families and agents and managers and hangers-on dependant on the success of Reiff and Voris, neither of whom have distinguished themselves throughout the course of their sixteen-year writing career. Though they’re probably best known for creating the cancelled Sleeper Cell for Showtime, dutiful CHUD readers will either celebrate or revile them as the writers of Demon Knight and Bulletproof Monk (throw me in the "celebrate" camp if they’re responsible for "Mr. Funktastic").
The most surprising aspect of this story is that Sir Ridley wasn’t already attached to Nottingham. Hopefully, we’ll have more ironclad RS news in the next few weeks.