Robin Hood International Trailer #1

A week ago, we saw the first trailer for Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. Now we've got an international version, and it omits the silly and inappropriate rock soundtrack heard in the domestic cut. Instead, this clip offers up a bit more story and a set of dueling speeches, one condemning Robin Hood (Russell Crowe) and one in which the outlaw rallies either a band of men or another leader. If this version of the trailer doesn't do much to dispel the notion that the film may be Gladiator in a forest, it does show off more of the picture's scope.

While the domestic trailer made the film look a lot like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, only with more grit and less romance, we can now see a hint of the historic scope that Ridley Scott has promised from the start. There are the expected bits with Robin Hood and his outlaw band in Sherwood Forest, but then we also see some of the beach assault that pits the hero against a different force.

While I'm not yet convinced by the footage, the real attraction for me is some of the cast. I'll watch Mark Strong in anything; same for Cate Blanchett. And I'd like to see what Kevin Durand will do as Little John. That could be fun.

Here's some of the official synopsis:

Robin Hood chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard's army against the French. Upon Richard's death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.

With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.