The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0939  Monday, 5 October 1998.

From:           Sarah Hatchuel <
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Date:           Friday, 2 Oct 1998 22:21:08 +0200
Subject:        New Shakespeare Films by Branagh

More Shakespeare movies are to be expected from Kenneth Branagh : Love's
Labour's Lost, As You Like It and Macbeth.

As read in the latest issue of Variety :

Branagh back to Bard

By Benedict Carver

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Actor/director Kenneth Branagh has set up a film
company that will make only Shakespeare films, with the first project
slated to be a musical adaptation of ``Love's Labours Lost'' set in the
1930s.

Branagh will direct and star in the comedy feature, which he promised
would be ``sexy, entertaining and accessible'' with music from Cole
Porter and Irving Berlin. Shooting will begin early next year.

Branagh has slated tragedy ``Macbeth'' and comedy ``As You Like It'' as
two other potential pictures. Like ``Labours,'' he will attempt to
inject each work with a fresh look and setting.

He will direct all the pictures and produce them through the Shakespeare
Film Co., which he formed with his ``core team'' of producer David
Barron and production designer Tim Harvey, to ``formalize our passionate
commitment to producing Shakespeare on film.''

Branagh is no stranger to Shakespeare, having directed and starred in
``Henry V,'' his 1989 helming debut, ``Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993)
and an unabridged version of ``Hamlet'' (1996).

The films will be financed and distributed by London-based Intermedia
Films, which will jointly own the negatives with the Shakespeare Film
Co. According to Intermedia co-chairman Nigel Sinclair, they will be
shot in Europe to take advantage of cost-efficiencies and will be under
two hours in length.

Despite the plethora of Shakespeare picture adaptations over the past
few years, Intermedia said it was confident that there would be a large
audience for this new spate.

``There remains an extraordinary level of interest in Shakespearean
(material) around the world,'' Sinclair said.