Colour me impressed – whatever the hell that means – but this sounds really interesting, here’s the idea from The Telegraph through Dark Horizons.
Acclaimed actors and “X-Men” rivals Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are to star in a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice set in modern-day Las Vegas reports The Telegraph.
The 20 million pound movie moves the action of the Bard’s 1596 play from medieval Italy to the flamboyant Venetian Resort, Hotel and Casino in the heart of the Nevada desert. The new version will keep Shakespeare’s dialogue but will unashamedly set the action on the resort’s versions of the Rialto Bridge, St Marks Square and the Grand Canal. No attempt will be made to pass off the replica settings as the real Venice.
The film is also expected to make use of the city’s thriving gay scene as it tries to explore the nature of the relationship between Antonio, the eponymous hero of the play, and Basanio, his young protege.
I love when Shakespeare is done well with great actors and updated in some stylistic way. I’m a huge fan of Kenneth Branagh and his version of Love’s Labours Lost which uses dance numbers and Cole Porter music, or the superb full-text version of Hamlet.
The idea of this just sounds superb and exciting, and I’m superbly excited! How about you, do you like the style and want to see this? I haven’t even brought up the idea of McKellen and Stewart together again, these fantastic thesps onscreen in a Shakespearean tale? Oh my lord…I think I wet my pants.
