‘The Death of Robin Hood’ Director Michael Sarnoski Breaks Down His Revisionist Story: “We Need Gray-Area Thinking”

The Demise of Robin Hood writer-director Michael Sarnoski by no means got down to make your father’s Robin Hood.

Lengthy generally known as the heroic outlaw who robs from the wealthy to present to the poor, Sarnoski’s revisionist take wasn’t purposefully making an attempt to knock Robin Hood down a peg or cater to both political social gathering’s most well-liked interpretation of the legendary determine. As an alternative, the Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One director was merely making an attempt to seize the stark actuality of a thirteenth century brigand.

“It was less, Let’s make Robin Hood a bad guy, and more, Let’s think about what the life of a medieval bandit might’ve actually been like,” Sarnoski tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The old Robin Hood ballads, they’re very brutal. The things Robin does are pretty grotesque at times. I wanted to add more gray and more complexity, and a lot of the subversions came naturally out of that.”

Sarnoski remixes parts from the seventeenth century ballad, Robin Hood’s Demise, as Robin (Hugh Jackman) practically loses his life whereas serving to Little John (Invoice Skarsgård) with a familial matter. The latter then transports Robin to a hillside priory the place Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) nurses him till he’s capable of get again on his ft. However not like the ballad, it’s Robin who’s the monster, not the prioress who treats him with bloodletting, an historical medical remedy to fight sickness and an infection. This idyllic island neighborhood might know Robin as “Randolph,” however his chickens nonetheless come dwelling to roost, forcing him to reconcile his darkish previous with the valiant yarns regaled about him.

For Sarnoski, The Demise of Robin Hood serves as a reminder that we have to be extra cautious concerning the tales we retell. 

“[Jodie Comer’s] prioress has this line where she talks about storytelling and says, ‘Knives cut bread as well as they do flesh.’ And what she’s saying is that she uses stories to help and heal people, whereas Robin used them to perpetuate violence,” Sarnoski explains. “That doesn’t make the stories themselves good or bad. But we need to be responsible in how we use them and how we let them be used upon us.”

Sarnoski and Comer will quickly be reuniting for the pilot episode of The Chain, HBO’s restricted sequence adaptation of Adrian McKinty’s New York Occasions bestseller. Showrun by Emmy winner Damon Lindelof, Comer performs Rachel, a divorced mom who should do the unthinkable to get better her kidnapped baby.

“I’ve read a lot of scripts with people asking, ‘Hey, would you direct this?’ But nothing had clicked yet,” Sarnoski shares. “So this was the first time I read something that I didn’t write that was just a no-brainer [for me to direct]. It feels so me. I get it 100 percent. It’s been really reassuring and exciting to see that I could direct something that someone else wrote and still have it feel personal and exciting.”

Beneath, throughout a dialog with THR, Sarnoski additionally breaks down the Demise of Robin Hood’s overlap with the Nicolas Cage-led Pig and Jackman’s Logan. 

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In Pig, a legendary determine named Robin lives in isolation till his younger affiliate brings bother his method that almost kills him. Within the Demise of Robin Hood, a legendary determine named Robin lives in isolation till his younger affiliate brings bother his method that almost kills him. Is Robin Feld partially primarily based on Robin Hood? 

Robin Feld isn’t primarily based on Robin Hood, however the identify was positively impressed by Robin Hood. I selected the identify of Robin as a result of I had at all times been a giant Robin Hood fan. And once I was doing Pig, I by no means thought I might make a Robin Hood film, so I assumed I used to be within the clear. 

I additionally selected the identify Robin for Robin Feld as a result of I favored the transition from considering his identify is Rob to Robin. From a grunt to a poem, Robin simply has such a sweetness to it. He’s a connected-to-nature woodsman, and that was a part of what at all times actually appealed to me about Robin Hood. My dad and I have been huge followers of Robin Hood. My dad was this very outdoors-y Eagle Scout/tenting man, and that man-of-the-woods aspect was a giant factor for me.

Past that, I’m at all times fascinated by reclusive characters or characters which have eliminated themselves from society as a result of they’re completed with it. So I wasn’t overtly occupied with Robin Hood for Pig, however clearly there was one thing occurring in my head there.

They each have the identical grey, unkempt coiffure and beard, however that’s extra a byproduct of being a recluse of a sure age.

(Laughs.) Yeah, there’s a scarcity of fine barbers out within the woods.

Robin Hood has lengthy been a mascot for anybody who opposes tyranny, greed and corruption. What compelled you to recharacterize the “Prince of Thieves”?

I’ve at all times been fascinated by Robin Hood’s Demise, and this film relies on that early ballad. There’s this evil nun, or prioress, who bloodlets the goodly, heroic Robin Hood. And for such an intimate act, I at all times felt like their characters have been a bit black and white. So I actually wished to discover that relationship in additional depth, and a part of that meant making an attempt to humanize these characters. I wished to grasp what worlds they got here from and what introduced them right here. 

It was much less, Let’s make Robin Hood a foul man, and extra, Let’s take into consideration what the lifetime of a medieval bandit may’ve really been like. There’s a number of foundation for that within the outdated Robin Hood ballads. They’re very brutal. The issues Robin does are fairly grotesque at instances. There are even early mentions of him that decision him a cutthroat who’s had all these frequent of us give you tales about him. All of it comes from completely different cultural contexts, however there’s a foundation for the brutality there. 

A number of it additionally got here from wanting to grasp the prioress character and what a header of that point might have been like. I took a number of inspiration from Hildegard of Bingen, a German prioress from the twelfth century. She was a composer, a theologian and a healer. So I actually wished to discover somebody who feels so pushed to assist society’s outcasts, lepers and orphans that she creates a commune for therapeutic folks. 

So it was much less an try and subvert Robin Hood, or the lore of Robin Hood, and extra a technique to simply dig into these characters a bit extra. I wished so as to add extra grey and extra complexity, and a number of the subversions got here naturally out of that.

There have been plenty of folks I idolized as a child, and slowly however absolutely, all of them revealed themselves to be extremely flawed figures. So if Robin Hood have been actual, it’s actually not that huge a leap to think about him additionally being a product of hype.

Yeah, and that’s the factor that he’s grappling with on this story. These tales have taken over his identification at this level. He is aware of he wasn’t some nice hero, however when folks discuss him, that’s not what they are saying. There most likely wasn’t an actual Robin. He may’ve been an amalgamation of some folks. The primary written tales about him aren’t until 200 or 300 years after he theoretically may’ve existed. In order that’s a very long time for the perimeters to get sanded off and became these completely happy folkloric tales. However the actuality of what he did was most likely fairly brutal, and there’s a number of brutality even within the whitewashed cheerful model.

The film additionally obtained me occupied with that well-known Pig scene the place Robin Feld goes off on one other chef. He shatters his illusions about his restaurant and the lies he tells himself about his profession. Does all of this recommend that you simply typically don’t purchase into hype or larger-than-life reputations?

Yeah, I believe all of us must be fairly suspicious of hype. It is a film about storytelling, narrative and heroes. Between social media and no matter else, we’re surrounded by narratives today. We’re consistently making an attempt to place some form of narrative onto every little thing round us. And in a bizarre method, it’s made us worse at assessing the world and our place in it. It’s made us worse at understanding ourselves and connecting to different folks and empathizing with them. We really feel this have to assign heroes and villains, and I don’t assume it’s making us higher as people. We have to take off the gilding on every little thing and take into consideration folks as human beings, whether or not they’re good or dangerous, or do nice issues and horrible issues. We have to get a bit higher at gray-area considering, and this film is about this one who’s combating that in his personal life.

In researching for this interview, I didn’t understand that there’s a political tug of battle involving Robin Hood. Either side of the aisle challenge their most well-liked interpretation onto him. Did you go down that rabbit gap in any respect?

No, I attempted to keep away from that sort of stuff. I used to be simply actually targeted on exploring the human aspect of this story. However I’ve positively seen it crop up within the advertising and marketing that Robin Hood is both a socialist or that everybody has their very own tackle what the character means. The superb factor about folkloric characters is that they’ll carry completely different cultural connotations relying on who’s telling the story and when it’s being informed or retold. 

With out getting immediately into that, this can be a film that asks, Who’s telling these tales to what finish? Are tales harmful or useful? Even [Jodie Comer’s] prioress talks about this. She has this line the place she talks about storytelling and says, “Knives cut bread as well as they do flesh.” And what she’s saying is that she makes use of tales to assist and heal folks, whereas Robin used them to perpetuate violence. That doesn’t make the tales themselves good or dangerous. They’re simply instruments that people can use for numerous causes, however we have to be accountable in how we use them and the way we allow them to be used upon us.

I learn someplace that the firsthand tales we retell ultimately overwrite the precise reminiscence the story relies on. So no matter elaborations or omissions we’ve made through the years find yourself changing the reminiscence. Do you assume that’s how myths like Robin Hood take root? 

Yeah, that’s an enormous a part of it. Myths are the tales that we culturally inform ourselves again and again. They’ll remodel in time, and whereas they’re making an attempt to entry another deeper fact, they’re not precisely the reality. However it’s completely true that the majority of our recollections are tales we’ve informed ourselves or been informed. I’ve recollections from once I was a child that I’m one hundred percent positive are usually not the literal reminiscence. In my thoughts, I can see the pictures from once I was there, however these are pictures that, in time, I’ve repainted and retold till they tackle their very own life. Myths are the acute, cultural consciousness model of that, and it occurs over centuries or millennia involving many alternative societies and teams of individuals. So these tales are going to get adjusted and tainted, or they’ll typically get distilled right down to one thing extra important. However they’re actually not going to be the correct illustration of what occurred.

There are positively shades of Logan in Demise of Robin Hood, specifically Robin’s responsible conscience and his relationship with a bit woman named Margaret. Did you and Hugh ever discuss Logan with a purpose to create distinction?

Yeah, that was one of many issues that the majority excited him. On paper, there’s a person of violence coping with his legacy, however that traces again to Westerns and Samurai films. It’s also possible to go all the best way again to Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s an outdated archetype. What excited Hugh and me was to discover that earlier than taking it in a totally completely different course than the place Logan goes. If you happen to come into this film associating Hugh with Logan, it’s, weirdly, a superb place to begin till we take you in a totally completely different course. His efficiency can also be going to go in a totally completely different course. So we weren’t fearful about that as a result of it gave us a foundation, and it was enjoyable to discover how completely different we might make this. Demise of Robin Hood is a really completely different film.

It’s becoming that you’ve a Skarsgård within the first third of the movie. It simply appears like an act that requires a kind of guys. 

(Laughs.) Yeah.

Was Hugh a superb sport about crawling round within the mud throughout that part?

He was an extremely good sport. It was actual mud too. We had stage mud on the day, however we didn’t have to make use of it as a result of it began pouring rain. We have been in a area with a foot deep of mud, and he allow us to bury his face within the mud. He was like, “I hope I don’t get an eye infection,” however he was there for it. His beard would fall off in the course of it, and we might simply stick it again on with mud. I do know for a indisputable fact that it was one of many hardest shoot days he’s ever had, however he was simply raring to go. He was like, “No, we’re going to get this.” 

The entire shoot was solely 30 days, and every little thing on the farm we shot over three days. There are three fairly hefty motion scenes there, and every a kind of had an evening to shoot. These are scenes that Hugh would’ve shot for weeks on a Marvel film, however we shot the three of them [across three nights]. So we couldn’t have completed it with out him being so supportive and ready. He would then have to show across the subsequent day and do some tremendous contained emotional scene that will make the crew sob. The man is simply unimaginable.

Did you and Noah Jupe bond over your previous run-ins with Demise Angels within the Quiet Place franchise? 

Sure, we did. I am keen on that child. He’s such a gifted younger actor. He was 20 once we shot this film, and understanding what I used to be like once I was 20 years outdated, it’s superb to see how clever he’s past his years. He’s been on this trade for thus lengthy, and he so is aware of what he’s in search of and making an attempt to do. So I used to be actually impressed by Noah and his efficiency. I can’t wait to see the place his profession goes.

Are you trying ahead to seeing your Quiet Place: Day One lead Lupita Nyong’o tackle her personal adaptation of a legendary character in The Odyssey?

I’m very enthusiastic about that. I can’t wait. I really like Nolan, and I really like The Odyssey. I really like all outdated myths, so I can’t wait to see what they do with that. Lupita is simply unimaginable, and he or she’s going to be so good at that.

You and Jodie Comer are reteaming quickly for HBO’s adaptation of The Chain. Who recruited whom?

Neither of us. We each got here to the challenge individually. We met with [EP] Breannah Gibson and [showrunner] Damon Lindelof, and we have been each individually enthusiastic about it. They each floated to us, “Hey, we’re thinking about this person.” And we each have been like, “Absolutely. I would love that.” However it was identical to, Ooh, that will be fairly superb if it labored out. After which it simply occurred to work out. We each cherished working collectively on Robin, and we’re tremendous psyched to get to do it once more. Fortunately, it was only a kismet-y factor that occurred.

Has Damon outdone himself once more? 

Yeah. This will probably be the very first thing I’ve ever directed that I didn’t write. I’ve learn a number of scripts with folks asking, “Hey, would you direct this? ” However nothing had clicked but. So this was the primary time I learn one thing that I didn’t write that was only a no-brainer [for me to direct]. It feels so me. I get it 100%. It’s been actually reassuring and thrilling to see that I might direct one thing that another person wrote and nonetheless have it really feel private and thrilling. That’s only a credit score to the writers on the present. They’re tremendous sensible and unimaginable.

Is Demise Stranding the following characteristic? Or do you might have a number of pots on the range till one begins to boil? 

I’m engaged on the Demise Stranding script now, and yeah, that’s going to be the following characteristic, for positive.

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The Demise of Robin Hood is now taking part in in film theaters nationwide.