By Having shot the film Dr. Horrible-style, independently and in under two weeks, professional cool-guy-you’d-like-to-hang-with Joss Whedon has put out some new shots of his forthcoming black and white adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.
While Sir Kenneth Branagh’s nearly twenty-year-old, Keanu Reeves-legitimizing exaltation obviously still stands as the preeminent version of the Shakespearean comedy, this arriviste can’t help but intrigue with its alluringly secret production, grayscale-and-suspenders style, and Whedon wheelhouse casting.
The movie is set for release this year and is a contemporary adaptation maintaining the original text, à la Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet. No word yet on whether or not Nathan Fillion will portray Puck as Alex had guessed, but considering that Puck is not a character in Much Ado and is actually from Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play whose plot-critical use of magic and fairies presumably would have been a much trickier twelve day shoot, I’d sadly call it unlikely.
Then again, Whedon could always be pulling a Miranda Tate on us. Perhaps Amy Acker is secretly Lady Macbeth, as well.
[The Film Stage via /Film]