A new take on the Robin Hood legend has various studios in an arms race to fling a movie into cinemas first. In this case, it’s with bows and arrows, and Lionsgate is pulling ahead. Kingsman: The Secret Service**’s Taron Egerton is the man the studio wants in Lincoln Green, and early talks have started.
Deadline cautions that “early” is the key word here, and both sides are nowhere close to a deal. But should he finally spill ink on a contract, Egerton will be playing a take on Sherwood Forest’s finest outlaw in a film scripted originally by **Knights Of The Round Table: King Arthur **writer Joby Harold, who has pumped out a story that purports to show how the title character returns from the Crusades to discover Sherwood Forest and the surrounding area teeming with corruption and crime. So he forms a group of outlaws and becomes a force for good.
Peaky Blinders/Luthor veteran Otto Bathurst is the man charged with the tough task of making this distinct from the many previous trips to the Hood. Lionsgate is promising this will be a “gritty reboot” but we’ll wait and see for now.
Egerton has been in demand since his breakout with Kingsman. He’ll next be seen in Legend with Tom Hardy (due September 11) and ski jump sports biopic Eddie The Eagle, which has a reported US release date of April 29, but no confirmed UK slot yet.