Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Hollywood's Problem with Public Domain Properties

I never understood why Robin Hood didn't get the Pirates of the Caribbean treatment, aka a swashbuckling, tongue in cheek, good time that stays true to the spirit of what it's interpreting while being a little dangerous.

At this point, there are so many "radical new takes" on public domain characters, that a faithful adaptation of the originals WOULD be a radical new take!

It also doesn't help that Hollywood has contributed to suffocating themselves by making sure that the Public Domain has stopped expanding as it was meant to. Instead of new things falling into the public domain for new artists to work with, they're forced to revisit ad nauseam the same, progressively older, works. This means that the stories which are most relevant are locked into perpetual copyright, often locked away unused. It's not how the bargain of copyright is supposed to work, and this is one of the many ways in which its current shape is stifling things.

I just realized it's only a matter of time before someone makes a gritty movie about Santa Claus. In the last five minutes, he'll toss aside his sword and become a toymaker.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is the best movie ever name

You forgot the other major Sherlock Holmes adaptation... House M.D

Obviously we need to take these public domain characters, and go with what is proven to work with them: Turn them into cute anime girls and sell randomly rolled PNG images of them to nerds on their phones for an absolutely sickening level of profit.

This may be true for Hollywood, but British TV got it right. The 2006 British Robin Hood TV series was traditional and great. The 2008 Merlin (not King Arthur, but he was in it) was also great.

I'm surprised you didn't mention The Three Musketeers, Zorro, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo.

And yet, never a random crossover between the two.

You forgot about the best King Arthur movie of all - Army of Darkness

As an enormous fan of Robin Hood, a lot of the newer takes miss some of the most appealing things about the legend. They're a lot about making friends after bashing each other over the head, wearing disguises to trick people, and laughing a lot. I hate the temptation to bring in the Crusades (as one of the few things that a lot of people also know about the Middle Ages) other than as a plot point for where King Richard is because it brings a Serious tone that really doesn't match. Robin Hood is as much about laughter as it is about justice. It's the combination of the two that makes it fun as well as compelling. I think this is a good explanation of why general audiences aren't enthused, but on top of all that these just...aren't really Robin Hood stories. I writhe in my seat a little bit every time I'm subjected to the trailer for the one coming out in November.

On top of what you discussed about the characters not really having a fan base, I think you hit the nail on another point. These films-- the bad ones anyway-- are made in the styles of the time. The Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie was the gritty comic book style of the 2010s. By doing this, the movies are already dated. There's no timelessness to it. John Boorman didn't make Excalibur to be a film of the 80s, he made the film he wanted to make. There was passion there. And he wasn't pandering to the stylistic demands of films of that time. Because there's none of that style of the times there; there's a timelessness to it.

There are some good Arthur adaptations in recent years. The Merlin miniseries starring Sam Neill and BBC's Merlin tv series. They do departure from somewhat from the material most notably Merlin being the main character and POV as implied by the title which is exactly same. BBC's Merlin is more radical departure where instead of being the old mentor to King Arthur he's a young boy discovering his powers and befriends Arthur. But both have the core lore and characters right. Even Stargate: SG-1's reinvention of the Arthurian legend with Merlin being one of the Ancients sticks closer to the mythology than the recent movies.

I mean, the BBC absolutely nailed both Robin Hood and King Arthur (Merlin) back in the noughties which is why no-one liked any of the new movie adaptations, at least here in the UK.

3 months later, and Patrick & co. correctly predicted The Nutcracker and the Four Realms being a flop.

Man, the production value in this video really shows.

I hope Elsie the intern gets a fictional subplot in the next few videos that either has a climactic ending of her getting work elsewhere or getting work full-time with Patrick

*looks up from the King Arthur book series she's been writing for 17 years* *sighs deeply* *drinks some scotch and cries to her cat*

The best King Arthur adptation in the last 20 years? Fate Stay/Night.