Cate Blanchett is Maid Marian

Russell Crowe has found a worthy match. The film Nottingham, which is now evidently getting a title change to the more traditional Robin Hood, originally had Sienna Miller attached to play Maid Marian. There were rumors the stick thin Sienna Miller made the presently portly Russell Crowe look even wider and older. I'm not sure Cate Blanchett is any less thin, but she's certainly a better acting match for Russell Crowe, and a stronger personality. Variety has the skinny:

Cate Blanchett will play Maid Marian alongside Russell Crowe's Robin Hood in the Ridley Scott-directed drama for Universal Pictures.

The picture, which had been called "Nottingham" but is undergoing a title change, begins production in early April.

Crowe plays Robin of Loxley in an origin story of Robin Hood that hews close to historical facts of the period. Abandoned as a child, he finds community with the common people of Nottingham. Robin's abandonment and trust issues hamper his ability to fall in love. He meets his match in Marian, a strong, independent woman.

Trouble in Nottingham?

Page Six reports:

RUSSELL Crowe is throwing his considerable weight around the pre-production of "Nottingham," telling producers to get a new director, demanding script rewrites and, now, forcing Sienna Miller out of the flick.

Miller, who was to play Maid Marian, left the movie yesterday after being "put on hold" while shooting was pushed back from February to April.

An insider said, "It is a mess. Russell never lost the weight he put on for 'Body of Evidence' - and so the love scenes between him and Sienna would have been laughable. He's so old and fat and she's so young and gorgeous. It's just . . . gross."

Word in Hollywood is that producers are "looking for an older, plumper actress to play the role so [Crowe] doesn't look like a paunchy grandpa. Someone in her late 30s or early 40s." A rep for Miller - who's said to be "fine" and "about to sign onto two other movies" - declined to comment.

Crowe, who plays both the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood, is trying to lose the lard. One producer who said Crowe has to shed 35 pounds cracked, "We can't have Robin Hood looking more like Friar Tuck."

The Oscar-winner has demanded serious script rewrites. "Originally the movie was about a love triangle between Maid Marian, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham," our tipster said. "It is now all about Russell's Robin Hood. Literally, 40 pages of script were redone and now are just devoted to him and his massive ego. It's amazing."

Despite studio denials, we hear Crowe is trying to get director Ridley Scott fired. Calls were made to several prominent directors over the holidays to find a replacement. "All of this was done behind Ridley's back," the insider said. "He has no idea."

A studio rep acknowledged that Miller was "released" but flatly denied "these rumors" and said, " 'Nottingham' is moving ahead with Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott."

Who's Robin Hood in Russell Crowe's Nottingham?

Russell Crowe is playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Ridley Scott's movie Nottingham. And now we have word on Robin Hood -- and it's Russell, too!!

The news comes straight from the helmer himself, with Scott revealing “He’s playing both!” exclusively to MTV News during an interview for his new film “Body of Lies,” which co-stars Crowe. While Scott held additional details close to his chest — saying they would take too long to describe — he did exclaim that Crowe’s dual roles would be “a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes.”

Meanwhile, Russell joked to Leno that with the long locks he's growing for the movie that he's playing Maid Marian:

'It's like walking around with a dead Koala on your back,' he tells Extra.

Ain't It Cool accompanied the Robin Hood casting announcement with this cool clip:

Bale rumored for Robin Hood

You can't always trust the British press, but there's a rumor out that Christian Bale and Russell Crowe might have a repeat of their 3:10 to Yuma matchup in Nottingham.

Christian Bale, soon to be seen as the caped crusader in The Dark Knight, is in talks about donning the jolly Lincoln Green outfit of Robin Hood, where he will be part of a menage a trois between Russell Crowe's Sheriff of Nottingham and Sienna Miller's Maid Marian.

Nothing is signed for Bale, but director Ridley Scott is exceedingly keen to cast him.

Costume fittings begin next week, so he'll be either in or out by then. Vanessa Redgrave and William Hurt are also in discussions about being in the film, which is called Nottingham.

Please, God, let this rumor be true. Bale and Crowe were amazing playing against each other in 3:10 to Yuma!

New Sheriff in Town

How did I not hear about this project before? Yesterday, it was announced that Sienna Miller (Alfie) had signed on to play Maid Marion in Ridley Scott's upcoming Nottingham. Russell Crowe had already been slated to play not Robin Hood, but in a rethinking of the legend, the good Sheriff of Nottingham. The film will have a love triangle not between Robin Hood, Maid Marion and King John, but with the Sheriff of Nottingham. I've been digging for a little more on the story and found this quote from producer Brian Grazer:

‘Nottingham’ is the ‘Gladiator’ version of Robin Hood,” super-producer Brian Grazer told MTV News about the upcoming twisted tale from the “American Gangster” tag team. “I think it will have the same propulsion that ‘Gladiator’ had - the same adrenaline hits.”

Told from the Sheriff’s point of view, the new movie centers around a familiar - yet very different - set of characters, director Ridley Scott said, revealing that his story begins when a legend first walks into history.

“Richard the Lionheart is on his return from the Crusades [when] he took an arrow in his neck and died,” Scott said of the flick’s set-up. “His brother, John, [becomes king.]”

John, known in his own life as John Lackland (because as the youngest son he didn’t get any inheritance) “was actually pretty smart,” Scott insisted. “[But] he got a bad rap because he introduced taxation. So he’s the bad guy in this.”

Meanwhile, “You’ve got the returning Nottingham who is the right hand man of Richard and witnesses Richard taking the arrow,” Scott revealed. “And so he comes back to England to carry forward Richard’s dream about England.”

The Sheriff, then, strives to do right while caught in the middle of two wrongs – on one side a corrupt and unpopular King who orders him to arrest outlaws, on the other the outlaw himself who threatens to rouse the public in popular anarchy.

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have been powerful partners before in films like Gladiator and American Gangster. Not so much in The Good Year, but it looked like they had fun in France drinking wine! Fingers crossed that Nottingham is one of their better film partnerships.