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Tuesday
19Aug2008

James McAvoy and Emily Blunt Lend Voices to 'Gnomeo and Juliet'

DateTuesday, August 19, 2008 at 11:53PM
Remember how Kenneth Branagh helped lead a Shakespearean revival in the 1990s? We had his Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing, plus a stylish Romeo + Juliet, a more stark Hamlet starring Mel Gibson, Othello (which co-starred Branagh as Iago), Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that's just the literal adaptations.

There was also the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love and modernized versions of Bard classics with the Julia Stiles tandem of 10 Things I Hate About You and O.

But in the 21st Century, we haven't seen nearly as much light breaking through yonder window. There will be a King Lear next year, and that's exciting and depressing for alternate reasons, and we're now just a couple of years away from an animated Shakespeare.

The Hollywood Reporter says that James McAvoy and Emily Blunt - who I'd pay to see play the star-cross'd lovers in a live action version of the great romantic tragedy - are in negotiations for Gnomeo and Juliet, which is being described as a "loose and edgy" adaptation in which the stars would play garden gnomes from rival gardens. There's no indication if the Travelocity Roaming Gnome will pop up as Mercutio. Blunt will replace Kate Winslet, who left the project over scheduling conflicts.

The film will be co-produced by Miramax and Elton John's Rocket Films, and Captain Fantastic will also lend some of his better-known hits to the soundtrack.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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