Genre: Action/Adventure
Premise: A Robin Hood tale that focuses on his arrow-slinging romantic interest, Marian.
About: Pete Barry played the long game with this script, first placing in the Top 25 of the 2016 Launch Pad Competition, and then, in 2017, selling his script to Sony. This is one of those “right place, right time” scenarios – writing a female-centered screenplay during a time when studios were dying to buy anything female-centered. The package was so hot that it snagged Hollywood’s current “It Girl,” Margot Robbie. Barry is also a playwright, actor, and director.
Writer: Pete Barry
Details: 109 pages
What makes the character of Robin Hood so popular? I would say irony has something to do with it. You have a hero who steals – who STEALS! – but (and here’s the key part) he doesn’t steal for himself. He steals for people who need the money. He does something bad to do something good. This shows that even 300 years ago, or whenever Robin Hood was written, ironic premises captured readers’ imaginations.
But this leads me to another, more current question. Why doesn’t the character of Robin Hood work TODAY? The last time I checked, there hasn’t been a hit Robin Hood movie in 30 years. The answer to this one is easier. It’s because Robin Hood wreaks of “old fashioned.” Put this character on the screen and you feel like you’re being forced to do history homework. There’s nothing exciting or fresh about it.
I think the only way Robin Hood works in the modern era is if you place it in the modern era. Have someone in 2018 steal from the rich and give to the poor. Or find a new weird angle into the mythology. Cause I’m sorry, but there are only so many ways to make a forest look exciting. Screenwriter Pete Barry is set to prove me wrong by making one key change to the age-old IP – turn Robin Hood into a woman. Let’s see if it works.
England is reeling. There’s a man named Robin Hood who keeps breaking into castles, stealing gold, and handing it out to the poor. Marian, who lives in one of these castles, has a secret. She’s dating Robby.
One day, while she goes into the forest to meet him, an assassin jumps out of nowhere and kills Robin Hood! Nooooooo!!! She recognizes the evil a-hole as Guy of Gisbourne, a weirdo who likes to kill and scalp horses. Unfortunately, he gets away before she can enact revenge.
While this was going on, Queen Eleanor of Nottingham was also getting attacked by mysterious woodspeople, but is able to survive. Both Marion and Eleanor meet back at the castle where Sheriff Brewer, who now knows of Marian’s secret, is waiting. He exposes Marian’s love affair to Eleanor, who doesn’t seem upset about it for some reason that I never understood.
Marian is determined to charge out and find the man who ordered her beloved Robin Hood killed. But before she can put on her detective cape, the castle comes under attack by a mysterious woodspeople army.
The castle is outnumbered so Marian is forced to climb up to the defense tower, Robin Hood’s hood hiding her identity, and rain down fire arrows on everyone. The woodspeople erroneously believe that Robin Hood is still alive, which gives the castle enough time to evacuate their people out a secret passageway.
Queen Eleanor realizes that the only way they’re going to save their kingdom is to find out who this army is. After some sleuthing throughout the land, we find that Eleanor’s evil son is responsible. He hired the army to dress up like the French and take down Nottingham Castle so that he could win favor with the people.
As for Marian, I think she still wants to kill that Gisbourne guy for assassinating her boyfriend, which she does. She then decides to take up the mantle and become the new Robin Hood. The End.
Ouch.
This one was ruuuuuuuuuf.
I mean, I don’t know where to start. I guess with the inconsistencies? Robin Hood steals from Queen Eleanor. However, later, Robin Hood (or who everyone thinks is Robin Hood) is defending the castle from marauders? So the guy who made his name off stealing from you is now fighting for you and everyone just goes with it? That made zero sense.
But the bigger problem is that this “secret army” was never established properly. I assumed that all the forest people were an extension of the Robin Hood gang and it was them versus the establishment. But then, through some wonky storytelling, we learn that there are two separate types of forest people – the good kind, and this, other, bad kind.
Not only that, but the bad kind has this mysterious sheen over them. We’re not told who they are. We’re not even told they’re bad until they’re attacking the castle. So at first I thought it was Robin Hood’s gang attacking the castle. Which made things even more confusing when Marian, dressed as Robin Hood, was shooting arrows at them.
Then there were the allegiances, which were confusing as hell. Is Marian aligned with the good forest people or isn’t she? It was unclear whether she was a hardcore member of their gang or just there to swap spit with Robin Hood. Because once he was out of the picture, she seemed pretty tight with Sheriff Brewer and Queen Eleanor. I could never tell what her situation was. It was incredibly frustrating.
The script is also a plot explosion. There’s so much to keep track of with Marian becoming Robin Hood and the secret behind who assassinated him and Eleanor trying to keep the castle safe while her sons were out of town and this secret army that someone was building for reasons that were never understood.
It’s classic overplotting.
All you needed here was a woman whose boyfriend was assassinated and she’s trying to find the killer. That’s it. Her investigation takes her into the forest, where she questions Robin Hood’s own gang, to the sheriff, to wealthy landowners, and finally to the castles, where she must deftly switch in and out of disguise in order to find the truth. Just keep it simple.
Why do writers feel the need to write these stories that require their own separate study guide to keep track of what’s going on?
But the biggest faux pas here is Marian herself. She never gets a chance to shine. Eleanor has a lot more to do in this story than Marian does, and that’s criminal, since Marian’s name is in the title.
This is something all writers should think about – How do I build a story that best allows my hero to shine? If your hero is being placed on the backburner in favor of exposition because the plot is so complicated, you’re not getting the most out of your hero. You need to write something that has them at the forefront of the story doing the things that the audience paid to see. In this case: putting that hood on, stealing from the rich, and shooting a lot of goddamn arrows.
There’s only one scene where that’s kind of happening – when Marian is on top of the castle shooting at the army. But like I said, that scene didn’t make sense (why is Robin Hood fighting for the good guys now?).
Let’s be 100% honest here. This script sold because it hit that sweet spot of what the studios were looking for at that moment. And this happens sometimes. You get lucky. And to Barry’s credit, he came up with a concept he knew would be catnip to producers. There’s value in that. I just wish the story wasn’t so sloppy. This is a page 1 rewrite.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Plot suffocation – One of the biggest momentum killers in storytelling is TOO MUCH PLOT. If there’s too much plot, you’re spending the majority of your scenes on exposition. Exposition is boring. Hence, it’s more likely the reader will become bored. Lighten up the plot load by keeping things simple. If this would’ve stayed with Marian trying to find out who killed Robin Hood (extremely simple plot), I think it would’ve worked.
