Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing

[Warp Coil]

Greg Cox wrote:

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So, will the ads read: "From the Director of THE AVENGERS!"

They should. I mean, the genres are completely different and the audience for "The Avengers" is typically not the same audience who would go see a low-budget, independent Shakespearean film. But anyone with half a brain would try to pimp out Joss Whedon's connection to "The Avengers" if it means few more people go see the film out of curiosity.

[propita]

PsychoPere wrote:

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He did, yes. Joss and some of his "regulars" (writers and cast both) have been doing Shakespeare readings at his house for over a decade prior to deciding to film this adaptation.

I love this play, and I'm very happy to read that the cast is familiar with Shakespeare's cadence. It'll be hard, though, to be Branagh/Thompson in the roles.

[Christopher]

^Did you mean hard to beat them in the roles?

[propita]

Oops! Getting used to my iPad mini toy.

[Greg Cox]

Warp Coil wrote:

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They should. I mean, the genres are completely different and the audience for "The Avengers" is typically not the same audience who would go see a low-budget, independent Shakespearean film. But anyone with half a brain would try to pimp out Joss Whedon's connection to "The Avengers" if it means few more people go see the film out of curiosity.

Don't forget to stay through the closing credits for the bonus scene where Benedick and Beatrice go out for shwarma, only to be accosted by Samuel L. Jackson.

"Get me Macbeth!"

And watch for Stan Lee's cameo as an elderly W. Shakespeare. "I say to you . . . Excelsior!"

[Kegg]

stj wrote:

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On the question of period appropriateness, was Shakespeare indifferent, or ignorant? Was Cleopatra dressed in kirtle and wimple because it didn't matter or because he didn't know any better?

Bit of both. The knowledge base Shakespeare and his contemporarenous Elizabethan playwrights had to draw on was a lot narrower than our own, but he never let the stated facts of a story get in the way of whatever he'd prefer to do.

[Greg Cox]

stj wrote:

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A woman's statue coming to life (I've forgotten if that's Cymbeline or A Winter's Tale) had resonances that simply do not apply today. .

A Winter's Tale, as I recall.

I also have dim memories of an old Poul Anderson novel set in an alternate universe in which all of Shakespeare's plays were historically accurate. Bohemia has a coast, there were clocks in ancient Rome, Prospero and Miranda are real people, etc. I think the title was A Midsummer Tempest.

And I still have fond memories of a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that was set in a 1950's high school, complete with period music.

"Why must I be a teenager in love?" actually fit the plot rather well!

[Christopher]

Greg Cox wrote:

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I also have dim memories of an old Poul Anderson novel set in an alternate universe in which all of Shakespeare's plays were historically accurate. Bohemia has a coast, there were clocks in ancient Rome, Prospero and Miranda are real people, etc. I think the title was A Midsummer Tempest.

Exactly. A 1974 book from Del Rey. Actually it involves several alternate universes and a cross-dimensional tavern, but the Shakespearean one is one of the main ones. And most of the inhabitants of that dimension speak in iambic pentameter.

[Admiral_Young]

Our first trailer for the film, with release dates, and the international poster! I can't wait for this.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=101250

[RoJoHen]

Love it. Really looking forward to this.

[Captain Craig]

^^^
I can't wait to see this!!

[Tom Hendricks]

Count me in too, can't wait to see this. Probably have to wait till BluRay, don't get to the movies that often.

[Greg Cox]

Looks like Shakespeare meets Woody Allen meets "Smiles of a Summer Night." Consider me sold.

[cardinal biggles]

I'll definitely be there.

[ManOnTheWave]

Must see.