I hate Shakespeare. FACT. However, having read most of his works (I had to, bloody education) I have noticed that there are more and more adaptations popping up.

Now, I'm not talking about things like the Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo & Juliette but more subtle adaps, for instance 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming Of The Shrew), Curse Of The Golden Flower (King Lear) to give just a couple of examples.

Now, is this a case of me being paranoid (which, I will confess, could be a very strong possibility) or is the Bard wonder making a bit of a comeback?

Yes?

No?

I'll get my coat.

mmm...i know very little of shakespeare cause being Scottish we tended to get more Robert Burns through the school days

if a film is a alternative adaptation of shakespeare then i'd rather not no

the only blatent example i remember was a film called "men of respect" which was a retelling of macbeth....and it was fucking terrible

What about the pile of donkey shite Tristan + Isolde, which I've never seen but can confidently tell you that it is more than likely a pile of donkey shite.

Personally I'm no fan of Shakespeare, however I did enjoy MacBeth at school and Kurosawa's version Throne Of Blood rules, but that's about it.

Shakespeare's stories are making their way to the big screen for good reason. Like them or not, the stories have lasting appeal and since Hollywood is out of ideas, and public education in this country has all but won the war on literacy, it only makes sense that they would grab their grave robbing gear and dig up the old classics which most people will not recognize.

I don't like it, and I don't generally watch them, but considering the fact that there is an alvin and the chipmunks movie, I suppose I can live with Shakespeare.


By the way, I don't think curse of the golden flower is really an adaptation of king lear, just influenced by it.

A hell of a lot.

I have read a lot of readings of Shakespeare.He was such a great writer.

Tristan + Isolde isn't shakespear's.

Read Hamlet and Macbeth, I actually enjoyed them both. I liked the Simpsons version on Hamlet (on one of the Haloween specials) the best though

Shakespeare's storys are absolutely brilliant. The language may seem a little esoteric at first but its well worth sticking with them for a while.

Adapting Shakespeare for the screen isn't just a recent fad either. As scrag has said Kurosawa often adapted Shakespearean tales as did Orson Welles. More surprising are the less overt adaptations such as The Lion King which is pretty much a Disneyefied Hamlet.

Two slightly irrelevant examples here, but the Coronation Street storyline of Mike Baldwin's mental decline with alzheimer's disease and subsequent confusion between his "loyal" son and his "scheming" son was an almost perfect mirror of King Lear.

I've also noticed a few Shakesperean graphic novels popping up recently in bookshops.

As Lee said (long time no see, by the way! ), I think it's probably more of something that's been going on for a while and maybe we're just now noticing it, rather than it being a recent thing.