Where there's a Will there's a way. That would appear to be Hollywood's dictum as producers rely more than ever on Shakespeare's plays as source material for the movies. On the way are Kenneth Branagh's musical treatment of Love's Labour Lost, starring Alicia Silverstone; sad-eyed Ethan Hawke pouting his way through yet another new film of Hamlet; Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart with Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Jessica Lange, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Titus (based on Titus Andronicus); and a contemporary spin on Othello in the basketball movie, O.
Next Friday sees the release of 10 Things I Hate About You, an updating of The Taming of the Shrew to a present-day Washington high school setting. Heath Ledger (right) plays Patrick Verona who takes on the challenge of seducing the ill-tempered student, Kat Straford (Julia Stiles).
