Both director Michael Almereyda and actor Ethan Hawke are returning to Shakespeare with an adaptation of one of the Bard’s lesser known and late (perhaps even final) works. In fact, this is its first big screen treatment.
CYMBELINE tells the story of Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline (King of Britain) and her elopement with Posthumus. However, problems face the loving pair when daddy decides he’s not so keen on his new son-in-law. It’s all set against the backdrop of Celtic/Roman Britain and warring factions.
Almereyda is no stranger to Shakespearean adaptations. In 2000 he tackled crowd-pleaser HAMLET, which also starred Hawke as the procrastinating Prince of Denmark, in a modern re-telling of the tragedy complete with business suits and CCTV surveillance. CYMBELINE will have a Sons Of Anarchy vibe, transposing the war to drug dealers and bikers. And if the trailer’s anything to go by, it’s being sold as a kind of epic, dark tragedy. Ironic really seeing as CYMBELINE is one of Shakespeare’s linguistically weaker plays and um… a comedy. Well, sort of. It holds more in common with genre-defying plays like THE TEMPEST: lots of potential tragedy but it ends with a lovely knees-up.
Let’s just hope it’s more convincing that Almereyda’s HAMLET. The 2000 adaptation reminded me a bit of an A-level project for media studies.
You can catch the first trailer and poster for the project below. It co-stars Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Dakota Johnson, Penn Badgley, John Leguizamo and Anton Yelchin.
Source: The Playlist
