Almost 400 years after his death, the work of The Bard, the great William Shakespeare, continues to be adapted for the big screen at an amazing rate – by all and sundry.
Rarely will a year go by without some Shakespearean work being redone, reworked or rein-visioned by all manner of different artists – writers, directors, actors etc etc.
He is actually listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the most number of screen adaptations by a single author. For the record, Stephen King holds the record for living authors.
Shakespeare’s body of work is well-known to also be as diverse as any, ranging from the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet to the comedy of The Twelfth Night to the historical drama of Henry V to the action and revenge of Hamlet. I don’t think there was any sci-fi in there, but he can be forgiven, considering his timeline was around the 1600 mark.
It was not long after the invention of film, that the first Shakespearean ‘short’ was made - King John in 1899. Original moving image adaptations of Romeo and Juliet (1900), Hamlet (1900), Othello (1906), The Tempest (1908), Julius Caeser (1908) and The Merchant of Venice (1908) followed soon after.
Later, British acting greats like Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton would make their careers by bringing Shakespeare to life on stage and, of course, in cinema, just as writer-director-actor Kenneth Branagh has done in more recent times.
Many other actors you wouldn’t normally associate with The Bard have tried their hand at his work, in some quite unique and interesting ways. Some good. Some bad. Some just plain odd.
Currently, there are no less than 18 film adaptations either about to be released or in early production, according to The Internet Movie Database, in various forms, including zombie flick Romeo and Juliet vs The Living Dead, the animated Gnomeo and Juliet, and the Untitled Eddie Murphy/Romeo and Juliet Project. God help us with that last one.
Below is a list of actors – while certainly talented in their own right, and, in fact, are some of my absolute favorites - are hardly what you would call Shakespearean, thespian types. Put it this way, they are not from the Kenneth Branagh school of drama … But, then again, the movies that they are appearing in are hardly the work of William Shakespeare in the traditional sense.
11. Leonardo DiCaprio
in Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
“Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”
Australian director Baz Luhrman’s ambitious adaptation of the tragic love story, which is set in the present day, but retains all of Shakespeare’s original dialogue. His big breakthrough, DiCaprio plays Romeo Montague, who falls in love with Claire Danes’ Juliet Capulet. Swords have also been replaced by guns, though the guns are named after types of swords. Instead of fatally stabbing herself with Romeo’s sword, Juliet shoots herself in the head. Natalie Portman apparently had the part of Juliet, but was ultimately deemed too young looking due to the fact that when she auditioned with the older DiCaprio, it look as though he was “molesting” her when they kissed.
.
.
.
10. Heath Ledger
in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
“The shit hath hitith the fan… ith”
Loosely based on the Shakespeare comedy about the courting of Katherina, a head-strong and fiery shrew, by Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona. With the story updated and set in a modern American high school, Ledger plays too-cool-for-school Patrick Verona who tries to ‘woo’ fellow student Kat Stratford, the fierce feminist. 10 Things I Hate About You, which is said to sound like ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’, was Ledger’s first big role in an American film, after starring in Aussie-made TV shows Sweat and Roar.
.
.
.
9. Josh Hartnett
in O (2001)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Othello
“My mom’s ain’t no crack head, I wasn’t no gang banger”
Another loose adaptation, this time of Shakespeare’s tragedy about love, racism, jealousy and betrayal, not necessarily in that order. This updated version, again set in a modern American high school was directed Tim Blake Nelson (the little freaky guy in The Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou). It has Harnett as the scheming Hugo (as opposed to the original’s Iago), and Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phifer as the victimised Desi (originally Desdomona) and Odin (originally Othello). Instead of the title character being a Moor in the Venetian army, he is a rising basketball star.
.
.
.
8. Sam Worthington
in Macbeth (2006)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”
An Australian version of the short and sharp tragedy about the 11thCentury Scottish general Macbeth, his wife Lady Macbeth and their plan to take over the kingdom. Set in the ganglands of modern-day Melbourne, the original thick Shakespearean dialogue that remains is voiced by thick Aussie accents – which doesn’t really work. Did help launch Worthington into Hollywood though. He plays Macbeth, a once loyal high-ranking henchman of crime boss Duncan (Gary Sweet), who is told by three teenage witches that he will one day assume great power.
.
.
.
7. River Phoenix
in My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1-2 and Henry V
“We have heard the chimes at midnight”
Two years before his tragic death, Phoenix puts in a critically-acclaimed performance as troubled homosexual hustler, Mike Waters, who suffers from narcolepsy – and is heir to a fortune. This Gus Vant Sant-directed film, which has a strong cult following, borrows heavily from Shakespeare’s tetralogy of historical plays about King Henry’s troubled reign of England and his troubled relationship with his eldest son and heir, Henry Junior. This is obviously set in the US state of Idaho (and Italy), and in the present day. Keanu Reeves co-stars as Phoenix’s ‘best friend’.
.
.
.
6. John Turturro
in Men of Respect (1990)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
This adaptation has Turturro as a hitman who climbs his way to the top of the organised crime family he works for, after killing his own boss, of course. He plays Mike Battaglia (in place of Macbeth), while Peter Boyle is Matt Duffy (MacDuff), Rod Steiger as the unfortunate Charlie D’Amico (King Duncan) and Dennis Farina as Nakie Como (Banquo). Followed the lead of 1955′s Joe Macbeth which also replaced 11th Century Scottish kings with modern-day New York mob bosses. Was screenwriter William Reilly’s one and only film as director.
.
.
.
5. Christopher Walken
in Scotland, PA (2001)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
“We’re not bad people, Mac… just underachievers who have to make up for lost time”
In this black comedy reworking of the Shakespeare tragedy, Dunsinane Castle in 11th Century Scotland is replaced by Duncan’s Cafe in the late 20th Century (1975 to be precise) Scotland, Pennsylvania. Walken plays a cop, Lieutenant Ernie McDuff, who suspects foul play at the fast-food restaurant which has been taken over by former workers the McBeths, Joe (James LeGros) and Pat (Maura Tierney), after the murder of the former owner Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn). The Three Witches are three bohemians (played by Amy Smart, Timothy Levitch … and Andy Dick). Written and directed by Billy Morrissette.
.
.
.
4. Bill Murray
in Hamlet (2000)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
“We are oft to blame in this, ’tis too much proved that with devotions pious we do sugar o’er the devil himself”
Following Baz Luhrmann’s lead, writer-director Michael Almereyda brings the original dialogue of a Shakespearean play and places it in modern-day America, New York City to be precise. It is where Hamlet must avenge the death of his father (Sam Shepherd), the former CEO of the Denmark Corporation, and murdered by his brother Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan). His ghost appears to Hamlet on closed-circuit TV. Also appearing is Bill Murray as the dastardly Polonius, Claudius’ co-conspirator. And bobbing up yet again is Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Polonius’ daughter.
.
.
.
3. Rick Moranis
in The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
“I gotta take a leak so bad I can taste it”
Moranis teams up withDave Thomas to bring their popular characters from sketch comedy show SCTV to the big screen. They are two down-on-their-luck brothers from Canada who get jobs at the Elsinore Brewery, only to learn that the new owner, Claude, is implicated in the mysterious death of the previous owner, his brother-in-law. Borrows the basic plot from Hamlet, in which a king is murdered by his brother, with Pam Elsinore (Lynn Griffin) stepping in for Hamlet, Claude (Paul Dooley) for Claudius, and the McKenzies for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s two dimwitted friends. The name of the company, Elsinore, is also the name of the Danish castle in Hamlet, and the ghost of Pam’s deceased father makes appearance, mostly in the form of a haunted arcade game unit in the abandoned cafeteria of the brewery.
.
.
.
2. Leslie Nielsen
in Forbidden Planet (1956)
Adapted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest
“Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content”
Long before he was hamming it up in everything from Airplane! to Scary Movie 5, Nielsen took on the role of Commander John Adams in this actually quite serious sci-fi adventure from the ’50s. Ironically the film was inspired by a Shakespearean comedy, The Tempest, about a banished sorcerer and rightful Duke of Milan, Prospero, who takes control of an island and its few natives. Itself an inspiration for Star Trek, Forbidden Planet is set in the 23rd Century and centres around Adams and his crew’s landing on a planet seemingly occupied only by the mysterious Dr Edward Morbuis (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter .. oh, and their robot, Robbie (who wasn’t in Shakespeare’s original tale).
.
.
.
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger
in The Last Action Hero (1993)
Adapted from Hamlet
“Hey Claudius! You killed my father! Big mistake!”
“To be or not to be? … Not to be.”
While this dud of a film is not any kind of adaptation of a Shakespearean piece of work, it is certainly most fondly remembered for the moment in which the former body-building Austrian and current Governor of California does an explosive performance of Hamlet. The film’s main character, 11-year-old Danny Madigan (played by the annoying, and main reason for the film tanking, Austin O’Brien) gets bored while watching Laurence Olivier’s rendition of “one of the first action heroes” Hamlet at school, so imagines his own hero, a cigar-munching Jack Slater (played by Schwarzenegger) in the role. As the narrator says, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and Hamlet is taking out the trash. No one is going to tell this sweet prince good night.”
WATCH >>>
