Trivia for
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) More at IMDbPro »

• Rumor has it that Kevin Costner wanted to use an English accent, but director Kevin Reynolds didn't want him to. Supposedly, Costner would affect the accent when he was arguing with Reynolds, but not when they were in agreement. Costner claims that he was initially asked to use an accent, but this was stopped when he did it poorly.
  
  
• Cameo: [Sean Connery] King Richard. Connery got $250,000 for two days work. He donated it to charity.
  
  
• The novelization of this movie gives insight into a couple of (semi-) significant edits. First and foremost, Reynolds was reportedly very upset at the removal of a scene in which the Sheriff learns the witch is his mother! Another scene, in which Robin rubs himself with manure, was moved from early in the film to the end. Knowing that this scene was intended to be shown before Robin enters the church explains Marian's request that he "take a bath."
  
  
• The role of the Sheriff of Nottingham was originally offered to Richard E. Grant.
  
  
• The scene where Azeem first shows Robin his telescope is similar to a scene in Dances with Wolves (1990), where Dunbar (Costner) hands a telescope to Kicking Bird.
  
  
• The shot of Robin shooting the flaming arrow was shot at 300 frames per second (normal speed is 24fps).
  
  
• Retired former head of the British Board of Film Classification James Ferman said that passing this movie as a PG was his only regret over his time in office.
  
  
• The film is dedicated to the loving memory of Egil S. Woxholt.
  
  
• A body double was used for Kevin Costner's nude scene under the waterfall.
  
  
• The producers, one of them being director Kevin Reynolds' longtime friend, Kevin Costner, took over the editing of the film, going to the extent of physically locking the original editor Peter Boyle out of the editing suite. However they were contractually, obliged under Directors' Guild rules, to show their cut to Reynolds. He was less than impressed with what they'd done to his film.
  
  
• Pen Densham and John Watson's script was sold for $1.2 million.
  
  
• Robin Wright Penn was the original choice to play Maid Marian but she had to drop out as she was pregnant with her first child. The part went instead to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio four days before shooting started. (Wright would land the lead in The Playboys (1992) the following year because the original actress, Annette Bening, had become pregnant too.)
  
  
• Sean Connery was first offered the cameo of Lord Locksley (Brian Blessed) but passed as he felt he had been playing a lot of fathers in recent years.
  
  
• The theatrical trailer shows Robin Hood swimming in the lake from a different position than in the actual film.
  
  
• During the attack by the Celts, one stuntman was killed several times as different characters. If you look carefully you can recognize him.
  
  
• On Breakfast TV in the UK, Mel Gibson said he was the offered the lead but he had just done a period film (Hamlet (1990/I)) and passed.
  
  
• "Sadiq", the name that Azeem calls Robin, means "friend" in Arabic.
  
  
• The line that Will Scarlett says after he launches Robin and Azeem over the wall, "Fie me, he cleared it!" is an ad-lib by Christian Slater that director Kevin Reynolds liked and decided to keep it in.
  
  
• In the scene where the Celts are attacking Sherwood, nearly every Celt who is hit with by arrow is played by stunt coordinator Nick Gillard.
  
  
• The songs the characters sing or hum within the film are actual Medieval melodies. For example, the song Friar Tuck sings is set to the tune of a song called Bacche Bene Venies, from the 13th century Codex Buranus.
  
  
• Having watched and been very inspired by the British television series "Robin of Sherwood" (1984), where a Saracen merry man was introduced into the Robin Hood-legend and let loose in Sherwood Forest, the makers of the film originally called Morgan Freeman's character Nasir, thinking that the character played by Mark Ryan in the British TV-series was a traditional one drawn from the old legend. When stuntman Terry Walsh, who had also worked on "Robin of Sherwood" (1984), happened to mention that "Nasir" was not in the original legend, but was completely made-up by the makers of the British television series, the name of Freeman's character was rapidly changed to "Azeem" in order to avoid a possible lawsuit.
  
  
• Kevin Costner had originally hired a coach to help him learn to speak English with an "English" accent. He had too much trouble learning it though, fired the coach, and decided not to do it.
  
  
• Alan Rickman turned down the role of the Sheriff twice before he was told he could more or less have carte blanche with his interpretation of the character.
  
  
• Richard Griffiths passed on the opportunity to play Friar Tuck.
  
  
• Last cinema film of Harold Innocent.
  
  
• Cary Elwes was offered the role of Robin Hood and turned it down because he thought the plot was too contrived. He did however portray the character in the Mel Brooks spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).
  
  

Related Links