Is it not also because Robin Hood is a folk legend, and like all folk stories there is more than one version and telling of it. It’s not like an adaption of a book where the story is set.
Same reason why there are so many different King Arthur films/books/stories.
Sir Guy of Gisbourne.
I thought the other bad guy was Sir Hiss?
;)
Hmmm, OK, added to list.
I do enjoy retellings of classics, particularly of fairy/folk tales. I know that I have at least a couple of modern retellings of Beauty and the Beast, for instance, and I’m not talking about novelizations of the TV show. Each generation can relate to its own stars and ideas of heroism in its own way, when the story is retold. Heck, we get remakes of superheroes in movies and TV all the time, not because they can necessarily do it better, but because telling the story again can tell new parts of the story.
I welcome a new remake, because I can’t STAND Costner. Parts of the RH movie that he was in were very good. But Costner was the wrong actor for the role.
My son and I love that cartoon. Our favorite part is when he shows his gross buffoonery with the quarterstaff (actually a buck and a quarter quarterstaff, but he’s not telling Friar Tuck that):
HO! HAHA! GUARDTURNPARRYDODGESPINHATHRUST!
doing
By far the best part of that cartoon.
The great thing about Robin Hood is that it’s a blank canvas, so every generation can have a new movie. Putting a blank actor on a blank canvas is, however, not a good move.
Here you go: Robin Hood Daffy
The Justin Bieber version started production yesterday. 
Christopher Robin Hood?
Yes to all of this. There is no better Robin Hood.
A bit of a hi-jack, and I have raised the issue before, but why do Americans insist on pronouncing Robin Hood as though it were a single word, with a strong stress on the first syllable: ROBenhd? It is a name, first name and last name, and the British (whose story it is, after all) pronounce it as such. Why do Americans think it is different? They do not pronounce (or stress) other names in this weird way.
In his 1992 book “A World Lit Only By Fire” historian William Manchester talks about how outlaws terrorized the countryside in Medieval Europe and has a line about how if the Sheriff of Nottingham actually existed, he must be the most wrongly maligned man in history. Maybe someone should try making a movie from Nottingham’s point of view.
Every generation of movie goers wants to see their own favorite actors of today in one of the most famous stories in Western civilization. They might have seen the previous ones but they won’t go to theaters to see the Flynn or Costner versiobs if they were rereleased. Just like teenyboppers never seem to pick up on previous teenybopper faves such as Herman’s Hermits, Partridge Family, Backstreet Boys…they HAVE to have today’s newest recording sensation
At least one similar example: the name of my home town.
I’m from Green Bay, Wisconsin (home of the Packers pro football team). Natives pronounce the name of the city as two separate words (which it, of course, is), with equal emphasis on both syllables. Many non-natives pronounce it as GREENbay – one run-together word, with emphasis on the first syllable. (It particularly made me crazy when Paul Hornung…who played in Green Bay for a decade, for crying out loud…would pronounce it that way.)
(Back to your topic…yeah, I pronounce it ROBinhud.)
I can’t say I’ve ever heard Green Bay pronounced that way (not that I’ve heard it pronounced at all all that often), but, to be fair, it is the name of a town, and most town names are one word.
But Robin Hood is a perfectly straightforward personal name: first name and last name.* Why do Americans think this person’s name, and this person alone as far as I know, is different?
*OK, it is the pseudonym of someone who is probably mythical anyway, but that is not relevant. No-one says MALcmex, or PAUlbnyn.
Wow. I never realized I say it like that! ROBinud. Raw BIN hood. Hmm… Maybe it’s because of the American habit to drop the H from some words that start with it. Herb is an example (the plants, not the name), and saying “an historical event …” sounds like “anistorical event…”
The 70’s-or-thereabouts Disney version also led way to the ever-popular song, ‘Hamster Dance.’ I adore that entire movie FWIW. Oodalolly!
I’m sure Gregory Maguire will get around to writing a book about it eventually. And then there will be a Broadway musical, which will lead to Yet Another Robin Hood Movie.
American here and I’ve never said Robin Hood that way. I say Robin/Hood. :dubious: I suppose if I were in a hurry, the two words might flow together into Robinud, but I doubt it.
I find this funny coming from a Brit where ya’ll run lots of words together. Heck, you even leave out syllables! (will think of examples later. Am late for work).
Cholmondely (“Chumley”)
Featherstonehaugh (“Fanshaw”)
Two examples I can think of offhand.
Worcestershire
And all those abbreviated nautical terms – bo’sun for boatswain, or fo’c’s’le for forecastle.
I agree. I say Robin - Hood, myself, and never slur it into ROBnhud. I think everyone I know pronounces it as three distinct syllables.