Disney Buys New, Live-Action Take On Robin Hood

The public domain strikes again! Mere weeks after Sony spent seven figures on a shared universe reimagining of the Robin Hood story, Disney has just purchased their own new version on the classic character. It's called Nottingham & Hood and was written on spec by first time writer Brandon Barker. Little is know about the take but it's called "revisionist," is said to be thematically close to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films and is hoped to "launch a new adventure franchise." Read more about the new Disney Robin Hood film below.

Deadline broke the news of this new Disney Robin Hood film and, frankly, is anyone surprised? Disney currently has live action films at various stages of development remaking numerous popular animated movies. It's the kind of story we've come to expect from the studio. Plus, we all know Hollywood is a copycat town. We know nothing of Barker or his script and, frankly, it could be amazing. It could be the script that makes Robin Hood cool again and grosses $1 billion. However, the fact Sony just bought their own new Robin Hood film, plus DreamWorks has had one in development for a few years, certainly has something to do with either Barker writing it, or Disney buying it. Studios love to compete with one another.

The Robin Hood character is one that's been seen through so, so many different lenses, it's hard to imagine another version in a Pirates of the Caribbean tone. Does that mean the happy-go-lucky Errol Flynn style with huge special effects around it? That's probably about what we're looking at here. The last few big budget Robin Hood movies – the Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe ones specifically – have taken the character very seriously. You'd imagine this take would go against that. Maybe a more dashing Robin, not unlike Disney's last version.

So now there are at least two major, live-action Robin Hood remakes in the works. What do you think?