OPINION: Too Many Robins Spoil The Soup

Robin Hood on the brain.

Do we really want to hop on this bandwagon again? It seems to me that the British character has been done to death so many times that it’s been seeped into parody like the 1993 Mel Brooks version, Men In Tights. Or perhaps on television you remember When Things Were Rotten (1975). That one had Dick Gautier and Misty Rowe as Robin and Marion. But let’s not go to Robin & Marion (1976) where Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn are our main characters. That was a drama but it looked like a parody in my eyes. 

Another TV version was The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) which had comedic actor George Segal, Morgan Fairchild, and the late Roddy McDowall as Robin, Marian, and King John, respectively. This one, I must say, I enjoyed.

If ever there was a character that the Monty Python troupe should have done, they would have come up with a rip-roaring send-up with the fictional Monty Python and the Merry Men with Eric Idle as Robin and Terry Jones as Marian. But I digress into speculation.

Apart from parodies we also had the successful 2006 BBC-1 series Robin Hood for three seasons and from 1984-1986 we had Robin of Sherwood.

So what of the four big companies’ interests of making more Robin Hood movies? It’s not like they’re running out of ideas – are they?

The last time we saw a movie was the 2010 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe as the titular Robin and Cate Blanchett as Lady Marian. We certainly don’t need another version and retelling of a guy who fights for his people against a corrupt figure.

Not to be outdone we have yet another company, FreemantleMedia North America, who bought the rights of a series of novels by Angus Donald called The Outlaw Chronicles; another Batman Begins style rip-off for television. Can we stand the glut or are we going to regurgitate and re-imagine over and over again until we’re sick of it?

So here’s my two cents: leave the legend be. Let enough time pass (10-15 years) so we can feast on another version. You can’t have 20 courses of meals in a day without getting sick to your stomach. The same goes with these new films and TV series.