Just saw a trailer on Syfy here in the UK. It’s got dragons and monsters and… it’s called Beyond Sherwood Forest. Yeah, that’s right. As in Robin Hood getting another makeover, this time, in a fantasy monster-slayer type way.

Its production company, Front Street Pictures, has this plot description for us:

A reimagining of the classic Robin Hood tale merges the elements of magic and medieval romance. The Sheriff of Nottingham has targeted Robin and his band of heroes dwelling within Sherwood Forest. To destroy his enemies, the Sheriff unleashes an unstoppable creature that transforms at night into Alina, a striking woman. Robin must find a cure for Alina before her terror spreads, all the while keeping his childhood love Maid Marion out of harm’s way.

Or, as Mr T so eloquently put it: “If you didn’t think Merlin went far enough… well, there you go.” (That’s BBC’s Merlin, btw, and it went so far the only reason you’d think it was even vaguely Arthurian is because of the names, but that’s it.)

Or, as Beyond Hollywood put it: “There’s a lot of fun to be found here. A lot of fun in the sense that it will probably be awful.” No shit?

DreadCentral.com also seem unimpressed with the idea of Robin the Monster Slayer:

If Robin Hood is such a great hero you’d think he’d be able to work in some monster fighting in between all his robbing from the rich to give to the poor. That’s why all Robin Hood movies in the past have sucked: lack of monsters. Thank goodness we have the Sci-Fi Channel around to rectify such mistakes.

I mean, BBC’s Robin Hood wasn’t exactly brilliant (Guy of Gisbourne excluded), described by comedy show Dead Ringers as “a brand new series of Robin Hood; where we’ve taken a much-loved classic tale, given it a pithy 20th century makeover, and made it shit.” What Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (out next year) is going to be like, we’ll have to wait and see. Maybe it’s because of that they’ve made this?

Why am I bothered about Robin Hood? Because I bloody live here! Sherwood Forest is about half an hour or so north of the city of Nottingham, we have Robin Hood festivals both at the Sherwood Forest visitor’s centre as well as at Nottingham Castle (don’t get your hopes up, it was built in the 1870s and looks like any number of mansions from that era – I was quite disappointed when I first moved here). So yeah, I take a bit of personal interest. Well, sort of. At least I can pretty much guarantee you there are no dragons up Edwinstowe way, or hiding inside the Major Oak…

If you’re in the UK and want to see it, it’s showing on Syfy (Sky 129, Virgin 135, Tiscali 22) on Tuesday, after the series finale of Warehouse 13, so make that 10pm.