Macfadyen to play 'Robin Hood's Sheriff

Matthew Macfadyen has been cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Russell Crowe's Robin Hood.

The British actor, whose credits include Pride And Prejudice as well as the recent Charles Dickens TV adaptation Little Dorrit, will play Sherwood Forest outlaw's nemesis in Ridley Scott's reinvention of the Robin Hood legend, according to Topix.net.

Crowe was initially cast in the Sheriff role in Robin Hood, but switched to play the eponymous hero when Scott reworked the script to scale back the villain's part.

"The Sheriff of Nottingham is always a kind of amusing character in most of the movies, who represents the hierarchy in the story," Scott said of the character's role earlier this year.

Alan Rickman and Robert Shaw have portrayed the Sheriff in previous movie incarnations.