How to destroy a screenplay (Nottingham)
Over on his blog William Martell writes about the dire progression of a cool-sounding screenplay by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris into the pabulum that is Robin Hood.
Martell has the full details, but the gist of it is:
Step 1. Reiff and Voris write Nottingham, a cool retelling of the Robin Hood story in which our protagonist, the Sheriff of Nottingham, uses period forensics to track down a terrorist named Robin Hood.
Step 2. Screenplay is bought, and Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott are attached to the project.
Step 3. Scott vigorously mutilates the story until...
Step 4. A fairly straight retelling of the Robin Hood story, only more boring, hits the theaters.
Again you can read the full story here, along with a discussion of why things like this happen. I actually like the idea of "locking" a screenplay, along Martell's point about how you can tell a Hitchcock or Kurosawa movie simply from the shots and other clear directorial choices.

