#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
"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
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