Not that anyone will particularly care, but I’m celebrating a small victory for Obsessed With Film today. Those of you with magnificent memories will remember back in June, we reported that William Hurt was in talks for a role in Ridley Scott’s then titled Robin Hood movie Nottingham. 

Ok granted, we predicted he would be playing King John, one of the expected villains but that was only because we looked at the tradition of the Robin Hood movies and thought he would fit the role well. It was quite an obvious prediction to make. 

As the months went on and Ridley Scott’s production kept changing, the trades stopped talking about Hurt as being part of it. But Obsessed With Film didn’t, we had a feeling and a hunch that he was still going to be on board. And if you look through our archives, we kept mentioning and shoving down the name of Hurt into everyone’s throats. 

And we have been rewarded for that today. The Hollywood Reporter say William Hurt has joined the movie (which I’m of the opinion, he has been attached to for nearly a year now) as the 1st Earl of Pembroke, William Marshall. According to Wiki, he was “the greatest knight that ever lived” and served four kings  Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John and Henry III.

So basically he was a real person and there is no mention of Hood on his Wiki page, so I dare say this is the first time the historical figure has ever been used in this mythology. It’s the first time on film, I’m nearly sure of that. 

It’s another intriguing piece to the Nottingham puzzle, as we have the movie focusing on a few different characters than other Hood movies have in the past, but we still have no word on who is playing The Sheriff of Nottingham. I mentioned a few weeks back about a Ridley Scott double bluff, I’m still counting on that.