10 Movies You May Not Realise Are Based On The Work Of Shakespeare
2. Heath Ledger + The Taming Of The Shrew = 10 Things I Hate About You
If there’s one film to blame for the teen obsession with Shakespeare re-imaginings (hey at least they’re learning history) it’s the Heath Ledger led teen comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You.
Unlike Get Over It and She's the Man, the film manages to do a half decent job at retelling Shakespeare's story, thanks in part to the performances of its stars. Adapting The Taming of the Shrew, this comedy focuses on the trials and tribulations of teen life. It shouldn’t work, but it somehow does. It also manages to stay close enough to the source material, whilst doing a stellar job at modernising it for younger audiences.
The film helped launch the career of the main cast, which included Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julia Styles, and kickstarted a new trend for teen angst comedies.