I don’t know what you’d call Welles’ Macbeth. He did do a Julius Caesar that was styled after Mussolini’s Italy, but that was only on stage.
Zombie Shakespeare would kick both of their asses.
HAMLET’S FATHER:
But that I am forbid to tell
The secrets of my prison house
I could a tale unfold
That would harrow up thy soul,
Freeze thy young blood,
Make thine eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy curly and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand an end
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
But fuck it. BBBRRRAAAAIIIIIHHHHNNNNZZZZZZ!!!
Oddly enough, that’s almost what Welles’ did. His 1930’s stage version of “Macbeth” was set Haiti and had a voodoo theme to it.
How interesting! Maybe because I saw him first in Pirates of Penzance, but he’s the exact opposite for me. I always think of him as an – not old-fashioned, but “period” is a good word for it – like Emma Thompson, sort of. It always takes me a few minutes to wrap my head around him in contemporary shows, but I have no problem buying him in period stuff.
I just hate Kenneth Brannagh. Who gives this fucker money?
I do!
I don’t see why this is such a stretch either.
I guess it doesn’t even need mentioning, but Kurosawa’s Ran and Throne of Blood were based on Shakespeare plays.
Setting in the 19th century then, would perhaps not automatically mean adding martial arts to the theme, but I can’t say it would make it totally unrealistic.
Further, seeing the critical and financial success of such movies as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero recently, I am not the bit surprised that a success-starved director would try some of the same “tricks” in a Shakespeare adaptation.
(However, if the movie will include Chinese swordsmen who can fly, even I will think he has gone too far!)
I’m that sure if it needed mentioning, somebody would have brought it up in, like, the first reply to the thread, or something. 
Damn, BrainGlutton. That was funny!
I agree. I saw him do Falstaff in Henry V a year or two ago, and he was absolutely brilliant. Had I not known beforehand that he was Kevin Kline, I never would have guessed.
Crap, HENRY IV.
Nothing to see here.
[kneejerk]No, No, No, NO! Geisha were not, and are not hookers![/kneejerk]
:smack:
:rolleyes:
I’m not really familiar with this play, though, so I probably will try to see it if I get the chance. (Definitely not a given – there’s only one sizeable movie theater near here, it doesn’t show too many foreign films, and the ones it does are usually the “Hollywood blockbuster” types. Plus the standard ticket fee of around $16 USD) Besides, how bad could it be? I’ve endured performing Shakespeare sonnets set to acapella jazz singing arrangements, so…
How old does it have to be to count as “period”? I totally forgot who I was watching in De-Lovely.
Haven’t seen it. I’ll put it in my Netflix queue now. (But it looks like the cover has him in a bow-tie, which is about where I feel “modern” begins. Ascot or earlier = “period”, for this purpose).
Bump: a partial cast list is up at IMDB.
Bryce Dallas Howard is Rosalind
Romola Garai is Celia
David Oyelowo is Orlando
Adrian Lester is Oliver
Kevin Kline is Jaques (GOOD casting)
Alfred Molina is Touchstone
Brian Blessed is Duke Frederick
Jimmy Yuill is Corin.
I still think this is going to be either (a) hilariously awful or (b) hilariously awesome. Possibly both. But with NINJA SHAKESPEARE! it’s kind of hard to go wrong!