First On-Set Photos from Ralph Fiennes' 'Coriolanus'

Ralph Fiennes has been on a hell of a hot streak for the past few years. Roles in The Constant Gardener, In Bruges, The Duchess, The Hurt Locker, The Reader, and his great work as Voldemort in the Harry Potter series pretty much makes up for Maid in Manhattan. And now he's directing. Fiennes is adapting Shakespeare's Coriolanus, using John Logan's script, and grabbing a good cast, too: Brian Cox, Gerard Butler, and Vanessa Redgrave, plus Fiennes in the title role. As you can tell from the new pictures, this isn't quite how Shakespeare envisioned Coriolanus, but that's the beauty of Shakespeare's plays. They're so thematically rich that they can be updated and updated and they never lose relevance. 30 Ninjas has the first set photos, and the guy behind the camera in the picture below is Barry Ackroyd, who lensed The Hurt Locker, conveniently enough. He's also been the cinematographer for Paul Greengrass' non-Bourne endeavors in the US, United 93 and Green Zone. So we're good to go on that front. The setting of the movie is not Rome this time around, but Serbia. I don't know if Logan has completely modernized the script or if it will keep the Shakespearean dialogue, which has been common (and effective) in a lot of the adaptations. Said Fiennes of his character several months ago, "Coriolanus, to some extent, asks what the role of a soldier is, not just in battle, but also in life. Shakespeare challenges the audience to resist his complex central figure, but against our reason, we often find ourselves siding with him." There's no distributor yet, but let's hope it gains some traction at the film festivals this fall and finds a home and a release date.

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freelance writer