When we discovered Hollywood upcoming spruce-up of Shakespeare's final play, 'The Tempest,' ready to hit theaters Dec. 10, we knew who to turn to: The expert, Adam Bertocci, who single-handedly Shakespearified 'The Big Lebowski' in his tome 'Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.'
Director Julie Taymor is a veteran of reimaginings, famously tackling 'The Lion King' on Broadway, interpreting Shakespeare 11 years ago in 'Titus,' reworking the Beatles onscreen in 'Across the Universe,' and now helming 'Spider-Man' as a massive -- and massively expensive --stage musical.
Bertocci is no stranger to the art of adaptation, having first delighted the internet with his mash-up of The Dude and The Bard, then published it. He's also no Shakespeare slouch, telling us, "Shakespeare thrived in an entertainment industry obsessed with remakes, adaptations, and mash-ups -- just like Hollywood today. No wonder they say his stories are timeless." Q&A after the jump.
What was your initial reaction to the idea of a 2010 Hollywood take on Shakespeare?[Ed note: Interview conducted before the film's release; Bertocci had seen only a trailer]
I never gave the question of 2010 Hollywood much thought; I was just excited for 'The Tempest' to get the royal treatment. It gets my vote for the finest thing to emerge from Shakespeare's pen -- I know the canon says 'Hamlet,' but they're not the boss of me. What a complex, frustrating, intriguing, challenging play. I've tried to adapt it myself, with varying levels of success.
Who in this cast would you imagine is most in-tune with the Bard's language? We've got Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, Chris Cooper, Djimon Hounsou, Ben Whishaw...
This is going to sound elitist, but you have to start by giving the edge to the Brits. It's a little difficult to judge from a trailer, because they're not much for talking. I've edited my share of trailers in my time and, frankly, I don't envy anyone who has to cut a trailer for a Shakespeare movie. He wasn't big on punchy soundbites.
Can you give anyone the edge based on their past work?
I'm particularly excited for Alfred Molina -- he's an incredibly bright guy, and that's important. Helen Mirren is going to be interesting because Julie Taymor's thrown her a challenge, with the cross-gender casting. I have no qualms about casting a woman in a man's role, but my assumption had long been that Mirren would be playing Prospero, the father, the duke, with the actor's gender being merely incidental. That would have been interesting on its own, but Taymor's film is actually feminizing the character into Prospera -- oh, that vowel. So Mirren has to not only sell Shakespeare's character, but the new emotional pitches of Shakespeare's character. That could be an uphill battle, but no one can say Mirren ain't up for it.
See the trailer here:
The trailer gets pretty special effects-laden toward the end there. Do you find Hollywood's need for bombastic action a natural fit to Shakespeare, or is it a stretch?
Well, some of it's pretty neat. I like the shot of the sprites disappearing between the trees, in the style of the Magritte. And I think that establishing the wizard's power in visual terms is worthwhile. But the play was written to work on a bare stage with an unimpressive props budget, so by definition, anything could be a stretch. Being able to play night scenes at night is a stretch. I think some of the imagery is a tad over-the-top; the simple image of Mirren in a circle of fire is more memorable to me than Ariel's fireworks show. I think, too, that cinema's tendency toward realism is unfortunate, and sometimes dulling. Look at Taymor's 'The Lion King' on stage; none of those people look like lions, they look like artwork.
Any last thoughts on the film?
You know, this isn't one of the most famous Shakespeare plays, and it doesn't go before the cameras too often. The world knows that there's multiple 'Romeo and Juliet's, multiple 'Hamlet's, and they've probably seen a few. But I think a fair percentage of the audience for this film may not be too familiar with the source material, just as was no doubt the case for Taymor's 'Titus.' In fact, some of the most famous filmed versions of the play weren't even straight-up adaptations, but revisionist works like Mazursky's 'Tempest' or Greenaway's 'Prospero's Books.' It's the kind of source material that invites that kind of invention. Shakespeare would approve.
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When we discovered Hollywood upcoming spruce-up of Shakespeare's final play, 'The Tempest,' ready to hit theaters Dec. 10, we knew who to turn to: The expert, Adam Bertocci, who single-handedly Shakespearified 'The Big Lebowski' in his tome 'Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.'
Who in this cast would you imagine is most in-tune with the Bard's language? We've got Helen Mirren, 
