I ended up missing a screening of Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado About Nothing, but I can’t say it has irked me to any great extent. Adaptations of Shakespeare’s work that stick strictly to Shakespeare’s language tend to irk me, recent examples being Julie Taymor‘s The Tempest and Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus. Around the corner, along with Whedon’s Nothing, we have Carlo Carlei’s Romeo and Juliet and the adaptations are sure to continue from there as yet another has been set up in the last few days.
Like the adaptations I mentioned above, Justin Kurzel‘s take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth will be filmed in the play’s original language with Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender in the leading roles.
Kurzel previously brought us the primal story of Australia’s serial killer John Bunting in Snowtown (read my review here) and his decision to go from that to this is a bit of a surprise, but he has certainly attracted a strong cast.
Portman and Fassbender recently took part in Terrence Malick’s upcoming untitled project and Screen Daily suggests Portman was interested in collaborating with Fassbender once again, which may have helped lead to this deal.
As for the story, I really wish this would be more of an adaptation than sticking with the original language. Shakespeare’s language is great to listen to, but there is nothing “new” about it any longer and I think it saps the energy from a film as the language becomes the focus rather than the story. Akira Kurosawa brought the story to life back in 1957 with Throne of Blood and it worked to great effect and not a single aspect of the story was lost in doing his own thing with the material.
In a lot of ways I think sticking to Shakespeare’s prose can become a crutch to lean on. A certain measure of responsibility is lost when a screenwriter can say, “Well, that’s what he wrote.”
For a small portion of Prometheus I thought we might be looking at a “Macbeth” adaptation. We weren’t, though I do believe there are still comparisons between the two works to be made wherein Guy Pearce’s Peter Weyland could very much embody both Macbeth and his corrupt Lady. This, to me, is far more interesting than to simply see the exact story brought to life in the original language. Perhaps I’m alone in this.
