Starting on a brief interview with Kelly Asbury, one of Gnomeo and Juliet’s creators, SFGate ends with a fairly standard list of “films that take liberties with Shakespeare.” Linked for those who may not be familiar with every item in the list. There’s at least one I’d not heard of.
By the way, if you’re wondering about the approach to Shakespeare Mr. Asbury prefers, let me quote him:
“I think Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ is a work of genius,” Asbury says. “I think ‘West Side Story’ is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, musicals ever put onscreen – or stage, for that matter. I, frankly, like Zeffirelli’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ very much, too. I grew up with that. … I loved it; I loved the score, I loved the acting.”
I’ll let you all make of that what you will. 🙂
This is an interesting topic. An entertaining little flick from 2001 is Scotland, PA, with James LeGros and Maura Tierney as Joe and Pat McBeth, who decide they can do better if they off their boss Norm Duncan. Christopher Walken is Lt. McDuff, and a trio of hippies (one of them Andy Dick) make comments from time to time.
Was the one you didn't know Strange Brew? Seeing it first-run was a kick, as we realized only gradually that it was going to be Hamlet. (Elsinore Beer!)
[This is my first post here, by the way. I discovered the blog yesterday when searching for discussions of "Playing Shakespeare" and "An Age of Kings," which both of which I'm obsessed. This seems like just my kind of place. Hi!]
One movie that took a rather…interesting…liberty that I saw was the Australian production of Macbeth. It kept the language, but had Macbeth receiving prophecy from the now goth-girl Weird Sisters by way of orgy.
Sharky, you're thinking of this one: http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2008/10/macbeth-2006-geoffrey-wright.html
And I wasn't too thrilled with the lack of an ending :-/.
Welcome, Jon! The movie I had in mind was The Dresser. I think I'd seen the book at one point, but did not realize there was a movie.