Growing up, his idea of Robin Hood wasn't a fox. Michael Sarnoski goes his own way

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The first day of shooting on his debut feature, 2021’s “Pig,” was the first time writer-director Michael Sarnoski had ever been on a professional film set.Previously he had made shorts with just a few friends, but now he had an assistant director and a whole crew of people working under him.

And he had a decision to make — what kind of director would he be?“It was kind of learning in the process of making ‘Pig,’” Sarnoski, 38, says over a charcuterie board at a Miracle Mile restaurant during a recent interview.“Actually being quieter and not the sort of typical yelly director persona you imagine is fine and a really pleasant way to be a director.”The acclaim for “Pig,” a tense drama starring Nicolas Cage as a former chef searching for his stolen truffle pig, led to making the bigger-budget “A Quiet Place: Day One,” starring Lupita Nyong’o in the third installment in the hit apocalyptic horror-thriller franchise.Which brings Sarnoski to “The Death of Robin Hood,” in which Hugh Jackman stars not as a swashbuckling romantic hero but as a haunted man facing down the grim reality of what his life has added up to.

He spends his time defending himself against the cousins, children and compatriots of those he has killed over the years.After nearly dying in a battle, he is taken to a remote island, where an enigmatic woman (Jodie Comer) nurses him back to health.Within the movie’s first few moments, Robin has stabbed a girl in the neck and skull and shot an arrow through the back of a young boy’s head, making clear that this is a complex, uncompromising character study more in line with Clint Eastwood in “Unforgiven” than Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”With a tousle of wavy hair, a full beard and a gentle air about him, Sarnoski does not exactly fit into the emerging crop of 20-something filmmakers now taking over Hollywood.

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