The most interesting bit about this article on Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus movie is his plan for more Shakespeare!
Fiennes may not be done with bringing Shakespeare to the screen; he says he could imagine taking on “Antony and Cleopatra.”
“Not only is it an extraordinarily great love story, but it’s written arguably quite cinematically,” he said. “I can’t help feeling (that), if Shakespeare was alive today, he would write very easily for the cinema.”
Nice. We could use another A&C.
Has anyone here ever seen the A&C film that Charlton Heston made in the 1970s? It went virtually unshown in the US (even more so than his Julius Caesar around the same time) and never seemed to turn up on TV, even in the days of local stations combing studio back catalogs for cheap product to fill the night hours with.
I'd be very curious to see it just once. His chosen Cleopatra (having also auditioned Barbara Jefford and Glenda Jackson) was Hildegarde Neil.
Yay! This is excellent news. I personally am pretty confident Coriolanus will turn out well. And a new film adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra is long overdue.
I love the Richard Johnson-Janet Suzman "Antony and Cleopatra" on DVD. Others in the cast include Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus and Corin Redgrave as Octavius. I disagree, however, with Trevor Nunn's cutting of Pompey from the production.
I was lucky enough to see the Johnson-Suzman-Nunn Antony and Cleopatra onstage, during a summer I spend in London. It remains one of the best live Shakespeare productions I've ever seen. (Along with the American Shakespeare Festival touring Midsummer Night's Dream and… well, I'll stop there.)
Film and video renditions would be a different list.
Jon: American Shakespeare Festival? Do you mean the American Shakespeare Center (my favorites)? Or is there another group named the American Shakespeare (Something)?
I haven't seen Charlton Heston's Antony and Cleopatra, though I did seem him interviewed about it. But that film will be released on DVD in a month and a half!
I'm not a big Charlton Heston fan—but he was beyond belief in Julius Caesar! He completely floored me. Astonishing.
kj