Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC
Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC
Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#1
Posted: 11/21/07 at 12:41pm
The BBC is in talks with HBO to co-produce:
"Boasting one of the greatest casts ever assembled and spanning more than seven years, the BBC's Shakespeare series 30 years ago was a defining moment in British television history.
Now the corporation aims to upstage its own classics by producing new versions of all 37 of the Bard's plays.
It has enlisted Sam Mendes, Oscar-winning director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, and his Neal Street company to produce the entire canon over a 12-year period.
Some of the country's biggest stars – including Kate Winslet, who is married to Mendes, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Jude Law, Dame Helen Mirren, and James McAvoy – are being tipped to take part in what will be one of the BBC's most expensive and ambitious drama series.
With quality television drama costing up to £900,000 an hour, the final bill could touch £100?million.
Mendes, a former director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, who took the original idea to the corporation and who will himself direct several of the productions, said the series promised to be extrordinary.
He said: "The moment I took the idea to the BBC, they grasped it with both hands, and in a sense they are the only people who could help pull it off.
"Thirty-seven plays over 12 years. Just think of the fantastic array of actors and directors, and of course the plays, those incredible plays.
"And then think of them committed to film as a single entity.
"There are lots of details still to be ironed out, and I don't know yet which of the plays I will direct myself."
Timothy West, who starred as Cardinal Wolsey in the BBC's 1979 adaptation of Henry VIII said there was no reason why the new series shouldn't be a success.
"I think it is a good idea in theory. I had a very good time on Henry VIII, which responded very well to television as a medium."
But, he said, it was vital that any new productions stuck to the playwright's original text and only relied on casts with experience of classical acting.
"People try to 'improve' the text, but I don't think the audience has a problem with the language if it is done well.
"The question is, are they turning out good Shakespearean actors who are recognisable to television audiences? People who are coming into the business now and who are making their names early haven't had experience with the classical text. The question is, can they cope?"
The new series marks a radical departure for the BBC, which in recent years has shied away from traditional interpretations of the Bard's works.
In 2005, the corporation was accused of dumbing down when it produced new versions of Shakespeare plays which were shorn of the original dialogue.
The BBC is discussing a co-financing deal for the new series with the American broadcasting giant HBO."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/18/nbeeb118.xml
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#2
Posted: 11/21/07 at 12:51pmThe BBC did this in the seventies/eighties with wildly mixed results. Hopefully, with Mendes behind it all it might be fun.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#2
Posted: 11/21/07 at 12:55pmYeah, I remember seeing several of the original series and it was very hit-or-miss. Hopefully, Mendes will do a good job overseeing them.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#3
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:31pmHopefully he won't limit himself to british actors.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#4
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:37pmThe majority of the previous original BBC Shakespeare productions were more miss than hit. Hopefully this time around they will do a better job.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#5
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:39pm
I forget--does the number 37 include "Henry VIII" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen"?
I would love to see an imaginative production of "The Two Noble Kinsmen"!
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#6
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:42pmKate Winslet already played a fantastic Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's HAMLET. I'm very excited to see her performing other Shakesperean shows. I can just imagine how impressive her Beatrice would be.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/10/04
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#7
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:42pmI keep hoping that Trevor Nunn and Ian McKellen's King Lear will be put in a video. Is there any talking about this? Cause their past productions of "Othello" and "Macbeth" were available in dvd.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#8
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:54pm
The "37" does include Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII (although both are credited as being co-written with John Fletcher).
The Public did a decent production of Two Noble Kinsmen a few seasons ago.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#9
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:57pmGreat news!!! I cannot wait.
re: Sam Mendes to Produce All 37 Shakespeare Plays for the BBC#10
Posted: 11/21/07 at 1:57pmThe production values from the BCC teleplays were comparable to soap operas. Sets that would look fine from the back of a mezzanine don't benefit from the camera's close-ups. Hopefully the $100 million will be spent on more than the actors.
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