On Friday, Joss Whedon‘s take on Much Ado About Nothing hits theaters. The film is being lauded as one of the funniest screen versions of William Shakespeare‘s work. Whedon’s rendition will join a long list of film adaptations of Shakespeare, whose material has served as the source material for everything from 10 Things I hate About You to West Side Story. In celebration of Shakespeare’s return to the big screen, we’ve rounded up the 15 best adaptations in modern film history.
15. Hamlet (2000)
Bill Murray, Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles star in this modern-day version of Shakespeare’s play (the first of multiple Hamlet entries). It’s rewarded for its efforts to turn the story into a tech thriller.
14. Titus
Director Julie Taymor (The Lion King, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark) was the first to bring Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus, to the big screen. While it doesn’t fully come together,...
15. Hamlet (2000)
Bill Murray, Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles star in this modern-day version of Shakespeare’s play (the first of multiple Hamlet entries). It’s rewarded for its efforts to turn the story into a tech thriller.
14. Titus
Director Julie Taymor (The Lion King, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark) was the first to bring Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus, to the big screen. While it doesn’t fully come together,...
- 6/6/2013
- by Stacy Lambe
- TheFabLife - Movies
Julie Taymor's last theater experience was notably painful for basically everyone involved. Now she's putting all that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark muck behind her with an old friend, William Shakespeare. Taymor will helm an Off-Broadway version of A Midsummer Night's Dream as the debut performance for Fort Greene's Theater for a New Audience this autumn. The woman who brought The Lion King to Broadway has previously directed The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and Titus Andronicus, also adapting the latter two for the screen.
- 1/24/2013
- by Zach Dionne
- Vulture
The Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes announced complete casting today for William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, the third Public Lab production of the fall season. Directed by Michael Sexton, Titus Andronicus runs Tuesday, November 29 through Sunday, December 18 at The Public Theater, with an official press opening on Tuesday, December 13. Tickets for Titus Andronicus are on sale now all tickets for Public Lab productions are 15.
- 11/2/2011
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
There have been many innovative adaptations of William Shakespeare’s work from page to screen. Julie Taymor blended elements of classicalism and modernism in her screen adaption Titus (1999) - based on Titus Andronicus - and Australian director Baz Luhrmann adopted a romanticised modern setting for his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (1996).
Adaptations of Shakespeare’s work allow room for creative freedom and when accomplished successfully, the results can be magnificent. Cue Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet through the medium of animation. Only rather than humans, the film utilises garden gnomes, the music of Elton John and a shed load of talent. The film takes place in Stratford-upon-Avon, a nod to Shakespeare’s birthplace. Here, there is a red house, occupied by Mr. Capulet, and a blue house, occupied by Ms. Montague. Consequently, the gnomes that ‘live’ in the respective gardens adopt the houses colour code and...
Adaptations of Shakespeare’s work allow room for creative freedom and when accomplished successfully, the results can be magnificent. Cue Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet through the medium of animation. Only rather than humans, the film utilises garden gnomes, the music of Elton John and a shed load of talent. The film takes place in Stratford-upon-Avon, a nod to Shakespeare’s birthplace. Here, there is a red house, occupied by Mr. Capulet, and a blue house, occupied by Ms. Montague. Consequently, the gnomes that ‘live’ in the respective gardens adopt the houses colour code and...
- 2/17/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
More Across the Universe than Titus Julie Taymor’s latest serves up Shakespeare with a rock reverb that fails to be as daringly original or as visually stunning as her past works. Rock songs are forced out of Shakespeare’s soliloquies adding to the generally clunky construction of this postmodern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This problematic fantasy centers on the duchess of Milan, Prospera, (traditionally Prospero – a duke) and her young daughter, Miranda, who were left for dead on a ravaged ship by a traitorous brother and faithless king. Stripped of her land and title, the sorceress made her way to an untamed land, where she named herself master of all she saw, claiming dominion over the natives—like the awkwardly androgynous Ariel and the monstrous half-man Caliban. As the film begins, 15 years has passed and Prospera has drawn her enemies to the island to punish those...
- 12/9/2010
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
Julie Taymor is no stranger to bring the works of William Shakespeare to the big screen. Her 1999 adaptation of Titus Andronicus (called, simply, Titus ) remains the definitive cinematic version. This Friday sees the release of her latest foray in the work of the Bard with a unique look at his final play, The Tempest . With versions dating back very nearly to the birth of film, The Tempest has come to the screen in wildly different interpretations, including the cult 1980 Derek Jarman version and 1956's science fiction take, Forbidden Planet . Though the chief deviation from the original play is the reimagining of the magician Prospero as a woman (Helen Mirren starring as Prospera), Taymor's version delivers a good portion of the original text with an all-star cast,...
- 12/9/2010
- Comingsoon.net
When we think of William Shakespeare, we think of flowering prose, light and dark romance, and heart-wrenching drama. Titus Andronicus, however, is another beast altogether, one that happily rests in the realms of horror, taking the most extreme reaches of Shakespeare's tragedies and then shooting it to a whole new and ghastly level. It is, in fact, so extreme that many believe that Will could never have written such pulpy, bloody horror fare. But that's what makes it so good.
It's a story that lives in how the viewer receives it. While a dark and pensive filmmaker might see despair, and offer a bleak and soul-destroying treatment, Titus Andronicus is also so horrific that it can't help but be campy. This is what Julie Taymor embraced when she filmed Titus in the late '90s, choosing to merge theatricality with despair to create a visual, moving, scary, and fun look into bloody Andronicus' downfall.
It's a story that lives in how the viewer receives it. While a dark and pensive filmmaker might see despair, and offer a bleak and soul-destroying treatment, Titus Andronicus is also so horrific that it can't help but be campy. This is what Julie Taymor embraced when she filmed Titus in the late '90s, choosing to merge theatricality with despair to create a visual, moving, scary, and fun look into bloody Andronicus' downfall.
- 6/12/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Julie Taymor's dark fantastic play-to-film adaptation of William Shakespeare's most fantastic play, 'The Tempest', has completed filming. One of the major twists? Helen Mirren stars as 'Prospera', a feminized version of the dark sorceror in the original play. Taymor directed the extremely gory and dark Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins, from Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus' in 1999 to critical acclaim and amazement.
In Shakespeare's fantastical thriller 'The Tempest', the magician Prospero orchestrates spirits, monsters, a grief-stricken king, a wise old councillor, two treacherous brothers and a storm at sea into a fantastical conspiracy bringing banishment, sorcery and shipwreck into the lives of two hapless lovers to stir and seal their fate...
Here Prospero takes female form as Prospera, giving her journey of vengeance and self-discovery a wholly new resonance. As Prospera breaks her magical staff against an entrancing volcanic landscape at the end of her heroic quest,...
In Shakespeare's fantastical thriller 'The Tempest', the magician Prospero orchestrates spirits, monsters, a grief-stricken king, a wise old councillor, two treacherous brothers and a storm at sea into a fantastical conspiracy bringing banishment, sorcery and shipwreck into the lives of two hapless lovers to stir and seal their fate...
Here Prospero takes female form as Prospera, giving her journey of vengeance and self-discovery a wholly new resonance. As Prospera breaks her magical staff against an entrancing volcanic landscape at the end of her heroic quest,...
- 4/19/2010
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
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