11 Not-So Shakespearean Actors Doing Shakespeare in 11 Not-So Shakespearean Movies
June 29th 2009 13:06
Almost 400 years after his death, the work of The Bard, the great William Shakespeare, continues to be adapted for the big screen at an amazing rate - by all and sundry.
Rarely will a year go by without some Shakespearean work being redone, reworked or rein-visioned by all manner of different artists - writers, directors, actors etc etc.
He is actually listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the most number of screen adaptations by a single author. For the record, Stephen King holds the record for living authors.
Shakespeare’s body of work is well-known to also be as diverse as any, ranging from the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet to the comedy of The Twelfth Night to the historical drama of Henry V to the action and revenge of Hamlet. I don’t think there was any sci-fi in there, but he can be forgiven, considering his timeline was around the 1600 mark.
It was not long after the invention of film, that the first Shakespearean ’short’ was made - King John in 1899. Original moving image adaptations of Romeo and Juliet (1900), Hamlet (1900), Othello (1906), The Tempest (1908), Julius Caeser (1908) and The Merchant of Venice (1908) followed soon after.
Later, British acting greats like Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton would make their careers by bringing Shakespeare to life on stage and, of course, in cinema, just as writer-director-actor Kenneth Branagh has done in more recent times.
Many other actors you wouldn’t normally associate with The Bard have tried their hand at his work, in some quite unique and interesting ways. Some good. Some bad. Some just plain odd.
Currently, there are no less than 18 film adaptations either about to be released or in early production, according to The Internet Movie Database, in various forms, including zombie flick Romeo and Juliet vs The Living Dead, the animated Gnomeo and Juliet, and the Untitled Eddie Murphy/Romeo and Juliet Project. God help us with that last one.
Below is a list of actors - while certainly talented in their own right, and, in fact, are some of my absolute favorites - are hardly what you would call Shakespearean, thespian types. Put it this way, they are not from the Kenneth Branagh school of drama … But, then again, the movies that they are appearing in are hardly the work of William Shakespeare in the traditional sense.
11 Not-So Shakespearean Actors Doing Shakespeare in 11 Not-So Shakespearean Movies
| 92 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
