Sunday, October 30, 2011

Whedon & Shakespeare: A Match Made in Writer Heaven

Last Sunday, actor Nathan Fillion tweeted out a simple message: muchadothemovie.com. Clicking on the link led his followers to a website with evidence that Joss Whedon had managed to pull off a wondrous feat: a film adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

For a while the Twitterverse and Whedon fans were all abuzz. After all, Whedon had just finished production on the Avengers movie and was supposed to be on vacation. And the website revealed a huge cast list, with perennial Whedon favorites like Fillion, Sean Maher, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof.. None of these people had let on that they were making a movie, all the more surprising given their constant Twitter presence. However, the details soon emerged through an Entertainment Weekly exclusive. Turns out that Whedon (with encouragement from his lovely wife) cancelled his vacation to make a Shakespeare adaptation, something he has been wanting to do for years. While most of us know Whedon as the sci-fi genius responsible for Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, he also has a great love for Shakespeare and has hosted readings in his house with various actor buddies. After the big-budget shenanigans of The Avengers, it makes sense that Whedon would immediately go on to a low-budget Shakespeare adaption that he personally bankrolled and shot in his own home. Principal filming took place over just 12 days and everyone involved was sworn to secrecy until the website finally went live.

This is wildly premature, but I am already hugely excited for this film. Modern adaptations of Shakespeare are tricky, as evidenced by the BBC series ShakespeaRe-Told that adapted four plays that ranged from utterly fantastic to rather lackluster. However, Whedon is a writer par excellence who is capable of startling ingenuity. He might not be writing the dialogue (the film uses the original Shakespearean language) but he can be trusted to place his characters in memorable settings and add clever modern twists that will bring the play to the 21st century. He will be helped by the fact that Much Ado About Nothing is timeless - the story is perfectly suited to a contemporary setting, and the bickering Benedick and Beatrice are a far more sizzling couple than we get in most modern rom-coms. The cast is also extremely promising. Composed mostly of seasoned Whedonverse alums, these people do some of their best work under Whedon's direction and are guaranteed to bring an unprecedented level of wit and humor to this already marvelous play.

In this age of hype and publicity, it is a miracle that Whedon, the cast, and the crew were able to maintain such absolute secrecy all throughout filming. The shock of the announcement has naturally generated more hype than any big studio ad campaign could have managed and is rather characteristic of Joss Whedon's ability to let the work speak for itself. People who have never seen Whedon's other work (either because they've never heard of him or because they disdain sci-fi, fantasy, and superheroes), are in for a pleasant surprise when this movie releases next year. My greatest hope is that the film successfully showcases the multifaceted talents of the cast and their director and encourages more people to explore the Whedonverse. If so, they will discover some truly inspired TV writing that transcends the boundaries of all genres.

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