Ridley Scott’s production of Nottingham (the new version of the Robin Hood story) will go down as one of the biggest film production disasters of the past decade, if tabloid reports are any indication. This stuff has been going on for nearly six months – it was back in January that Sienna Miller left the production in a huff, her people claiming that she was simply too young, thin and gorgeous to play Maid Marion opposite the older, heavier Russell Crowe.

At the time, there was even an inkling that all was not well between Russell and director Ridley Scott. The pair have already made four films together as an actor-director combo (including Gladiator, Body of Lies and American Gangster), and Nottingham will be their fifth. Apparently, the strain of that history has the two men at each other’s throats. Now sources are telling Page Six that Russell and Ridley are so pissy with each other, the production keeps stopping. Their feud is costing the studio millions of dollars:

HOT-tempered Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott are said to be squabbling like a couple of gladiators on the British set of their latest collaboration, Universal’s big-budget Robin Hood flick.

“The producers had to fly to London because Russell and Ridley won’t talk to each other,” an insider told Page Six. “Every time they stop filming, it costs the production millions of dollars.”

It would be the latest glitch for the $175 million movie, which was originally titled “Nottingham” but is now just “Untitled Robin Hood Project.”

Last December, we revealed how Crowe no longer wanted to work with Scott, whom he blamed for their disastrous fourth collaboration, “Body of Lies.” Then, in January, we reported how the Oscar-winning hothead ordered producers to get a new director and demanded script rewrites that devoted more of the plot to him.

The delays caused Sienna Miller to drop out, and Crowe had to go on a crash diet to drop 35 pounds because, as one producer noted, “We can’t have Robin Hood looking more like Friar Tuck.”

Crowe’s publicist, Alan Nierob, denied that there’s any friction between star and director, insisting, “It’s a good scene down there. Everything is on schedule.”

Universal chairman Marc Shmuger told us: “Ridley and Russell asked us to visit . . . to see more than an hour of footage they’ve already shot, which was nothing short of spectacular . . . We couldn’t be more excited by what we saw. Russell and Ridley are working on their fifth film together and have one of the strongest and most collaborative working relationships. When it’s news that a studio chairman and a film’s producer [Brian Grazer] visit a production, it must be a very slow gossip day.”

Crowe recently told Live News the title of the picture, which co-stars fellow Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, may be changed to “Robin Hood” in order to market it more easily next May.

[From Page Six]

Call me crazy, but I kind of believe the denials from the studio people. I’d bet the film has gone over-budget, but that the money problems don’t have much to do with a beef between Russell and Ridley. A few months ago, the studio even took the precaution of releasing a still of Russell in his costume – it showed Russell looking very svelte and sexy, and ended all of those rumors that Russell was too fat to play Robin Hood. Russell might be famous for some diva behavior, but I think he’s getting a bum rap this time.

Here’s Russell Crowe on the set of “Robin Hood” on May 29th in London. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.