To be a faithful HAMLET adaptation, or to not be a faithful HAMLET adaptation

By Matt Holmes /

A lot of people expect big things off Emile Hirsch over the next couple of years. He reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio and from where I sit he has picked some very smart projects lately. Obviously Into the Wild brought him into mainstream consciousness but roles in Milk and Taking Woodstock have cemented that he isn't just potentially a great young actor looking for a big break, but is a great young actor right now! And when you are a talented actor, it's never hurts to work from the best material. During the making of the surf and skater drama Lords of Dogtown, Hirsch, then much less well known with The Girl Next Door being his most recognisable role, suggested Hamlet to future Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke as a potential future project and she liked the idea...

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I had a great time working with Emile on Lords of Dogtown, so when he suggested Hamlet, I was intrigued. We read the play aloud and when I heard Emile speaking Shakespeare€™s amazing words, I was flooded with images. We edited the play tightly, making the words extremely accessible. In our version, we€™re working hard to make Hamlet a thrilling cinematic experience - the violent, intense, and romantic scenes that happen €˜off-stage€™ in the play will be shown in vivid detail.
It's taken them a few years but according to Empire it's now happening as contemporised American version, which sounds like a Hollywood thriller. Which will mean she will have to BazLuhrmann it up if they we going to hear Hirsch speak those Shakespearean words! Hardwicke is keeping up her filmography trait of movies about tortured youthful souls and this Shakespeare revival (a handful of movies currently in production, including new King Lear's and The Tempest) on screen continues. Ron Nyswanger who won an Oscar nom for scribing Philiadelphia and who adapted The Painted Veil is scribing. Amazingly, I never get tired of Hamlet re-tellings. Even the unbeatable performance of Laurence Oliver, or the amazing turns from Richard Burton and Kenneth Branagh but I'm concerned about the sub-text here that this movie is going to be a thriller with slowly more and more of the Shakespeare blue-print disappearing with every scene. And while I'm here, best recent Shakespeare movie? Gotta be The Merchant of Venice with Pacino?