Rev Stan's film blog

Finally some Tempest news for the Ben Whishaw/Julie Taymor/Shakespeare fans

Been busy going to the theatre (four plays in a week is a little too much) so haven't had time to write about all the latest Ben Whishaw news that has been emerging.

Well after a tumble-weed inducing silence there is finally some news on the long ago made The Tempest. As expected Julie Taymor's gender bending take on the Shakespeare play is going to do the rounds at the Autumn film festivals.

First up is Venice in early September where it will close the festival. Then in October it is showing at the New York film festival. The London film festival, which is after New York in October, has yet to announce it's line up so I've still got my fingers crossed that I might get to see it there.

It will be release in New York and LA on December 10 but still no dates for the UK so I'll just have to be patient a little longer.

Oh and if you've missed the news about Mr W's latest project, which isn't a film, he's off to LA this month to film a HBO pilot with Alan Ball

A snippet from Alan Cumming about filming The Tempest

Thanks to YetAnotherBenWhishaw blog for highlighting this little piece that Alan Cumming posted on his website. It's accompanied by the picture below but to read what he had to say about filming in Hawaii and working with actors like Chris Cooper hop over to the site. He plays Sebastian in Julie Taymor's silver screen take on the Shakespeare fantasy play. You might have to scroll down a little to find it....

First review of Julie Taymor's The Tempest

So I'm breaking my own rule by reading a review before I see a film but as I'm probably not going to get to see The Tempest until at least October if it shows the London Film Festival or December if it doesn't, I'll have probably forgotten everything it said by then anyway.

If you don't want to know any more don't read on and certainly don't click on the link.

The review, published on www.aintitcool.com, is from a focus group screening in New York and is pretty much glowing. Helen Mirren's name is mentioned in the same sentence as 'Oscar' and other notable performances are given as Djimon Hounsou's Caliban and Russell Brand's Trinculo - the latter is described as actually demonstrating he can act.

And of course Stan-fav Ben Whishaw gets an honourable mention, I'd be upset if he didn't.

If that isn't enough of a teaser then you can read the full review - just ignore the unintelligible expletive riddled rant that serves as some sort of intro.

Related posts:

Julie Taymor talks about the The Tempest

Tempting titbits about The Tempest

Rev Stan's news: release date for The Tempest?

Julie Taymor Talks The Tempest, Spider-Man - Thompson on Hollywood

Writer-director Julie Taymor is in Cannes promoting her film take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which Icon International is selling in the market. “Isn’t it Disney?” I asked Lionsgate UK’s Nick Manzi. He responded: “Yes, but not all over the world.”

via blogs.indiewire.com

Looks like rumours of a festival airing followed by December release for The Tempest was right. IndieWIRE has an interview with Julie Taymor