Thank Shakespeare High for the word that there’s a new Henry V movie in the works. It looks like something independent, without even a reference on the Internet Movie Database. Perhaps they should have chosen something that Kenneth Branagh hasn’t already tackled? The comparisons are going to be obvious (and, I expect, fairly painful for Mr. Babakitis….)
Still, the more Shakespeare the merrier. It certainly seems like he’s going to give us a look at a darker Hal. I wonder if this approach is part of a larger agenda. In the past week I’ve read H41 and am halfway through H42. It’s hard to separate the H5 Hal projected in the movie from the H4 Hal that’s currently in my flowing cup freshly remembered.
In KB’s H5 we have flashbacks of Hal and Falstaff merriment and a voice over of Hal’s final rejection of the old night. But Hal’s real order’s on his ascent to the throne are that Falstaff and the others must reform themselves before they can be in his presences. I wonder how this new production will treat that, if at all. The photo sets in your link suggest to me an expanded role for the boy servant given to Falstaff by Prince Hal. That too will be interesting.