Hamlet 2 / Interview with Steve Coogan

When a high school threatens to cut drama from the curriculum, a teacher puts on a show to save the department. Unfortunately, the play involves Shakespeare and a Jesus who dances like Elvis. If that sounds politically incorrect, it is in the new comedy Hamlet 2 (opening August 22 in select San Diego theaters). You can listen to my interview with British comedian Steve Coogan and director Andrew Fleming about pushing the envelope in comedy. I spoke with them right after they presented a panel on the film at Comic-Con.

Third Annual San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival

High Tech High performers at the first San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival (Beth Accomando)

Technically this is not a film event but I have to highlight the Third Annual San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival that takes place this Saturday April 26 in Balboa Park. I have been helping with this event since its inception because it combines two things I'm passionate about: Shakespeare and young people. Now in its third year, this is the dream project of the San Diego Shakespeare Society, a group of fabulous volunteers who work long and hard to bring the Bard to schools, young people, and San Diego in general. The Festival brings together kids from elementary through high school and even some home schools to perform Shakespeare in the park. There will be four stages this year along the Prado with the Festival kicking off at 12:30 pm in the Organ Pavillion. Performances run until about 3:30pm. And it's all free. The event is an absolute delight and I guarantee that you will be impressed by the student performers, many of whom are too young to be afraid of Shakespeare so they dive in with a gusto that is truly amazing. The energy level is high and it's a wonderful way to celebrate the Bard. But the Society is quick to point out that this event also provides a great educational experience for the students involved, and with so many schools reducing their focus on arts and literature, this proves how valuable both can be to a child's education. So come and join the celebration and enjoy some fine performances as well.

For more information visit the Festival website.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as sisters in The Other Boleyn Girl (Columbia Pictures)

The Other Boleyn Girl (opening February 29) serves up historical drama as if it were a Jacqueline Susann novel -- not a whole lot of historical fact but plenty of melodrama as two sisters vie for the affection of a king. But since Susann never covered the British royals, the film turns to Philippa Gregory's historical novel of the same name as source material. The story focuses specifically on events leading up to Henry VIII's second marriage to Anne Boleyn. The film covers some of the same bodice ripping bedroom terrain as the recent cable series The Tudors. But on the big screen, Eric Bana is not as sexy or sulky a monarch as Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Although the new film definitely serves up higher caliber casting when it comes to the Boleyn girls themselves with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as sisters Anne and Mary.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The closing film in MopA's Shakespeare on Screen

Parting is such sweet sorrow... well it's time for the final film in the Shakespeare on Screen series at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. Closing out what I hope will be an annual event at MoPA is Tom Stoppard's verbal tennis match, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (screening October 11 at 7:00pm at MoPA) starring Tim Roth and Gary Oldman in two of their most appealing performances.Arrive early for a little swordplay before the film screening and hang out afterwards to discuss the film.

Serving as guest curator for The Film's the Thing: Shakespeare on Screen has been a delight. Not only have I been able to show four great Shakespeare films but I have also had the chance to meet some fellow Shakespeare enthusiasts. One of those enthusiasts was guest speaker Diane Venora (Lady Capulet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet) who riveted the audiences with her insights and passion. In addition, we have been able to showcase young actors at each event performing scenes fro the Bard. Last week, MoPA's atrium was shrouded in fog as the witches arrived to tempt Macbeth before the screening of Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. Now to close out the festival, I have chosen a film that offers a riff on Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Hot Fuzz plus interviews with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright

Here come the fuzz! Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the comic geniuses behind 2004's Shaun of the Dead, take on the American cop film to deliver Hot Fuzz. While Tarantino and Rodriguez are sending bloody valentines to the grindhouse pictures they love, Wright and Pegg reveal their affection for the American action films of the 80s.

Three years ago Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg decided to make a romantic zombie comedy, and their first thought was to call it Teatime for the Dead. That perfectly summed up their cheery British take on the American cult horror classic Night of the Living Dead. Then, the pair decided to take on the American cop movie. But Edgar Wright says he and his partner faced some problems: In the U.K. there really arent any action films and theres really not many cop films at all. Theres far too many gangster films so we felt that it was time to redress the balance and do a British cop film. And also address the fact that not really a lot of crime happens in the U.K. and so how can we make that interesting for a two hour running time.

Underworld

The two households in this case are the aristocratic house of the vampire clan and the more feral house of the Lycans (as in lycanthrope). The creatorsdirector Len Wiseman, writer Danny McBride and actor-idea man Kevin Greviouxwere at Comic Con earlier this year boasting about the originality of their concept and of pairing vampires and werewolves together. But on the panel immediately following them, another new film, Helsing, also bragged about bringing the two horror clans of bloodsuckers and lycanthropes together and even with the same star, Kate Beckinsale in the lead. So, originality in Hollywood obviously has a different meaning than elsewhere.

Titus/Interview with Julie Taymor

Anthony Hopkins as Shakespeare's Titus

Director Julie Taymor won a Tony Award for her stage version of The Lion King. This month, she makes her film debut with a screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (opening January 28). Four hundred years ago, English theater didnt have to compete with television. But it did face stiff competition from other venues says Julie Taymor.

JULIE TAYMOR: "You had public executions on one corner and bear baiting on the other and you had the dramatist who had to do something very alluring to get their audiences."

10 Things I Hate About You

Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles square off in 10 Things I Hate About You, a riff on the Bard's Taming of the Shrew.

Just last month, Shakespeare in Love took home an armful of Oscars and proved once again the enduring popularity of the Bard. This month, Shakespeare provides the inspiration for the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You (opening April 9).

Once again William Shakespeare is the hottest writer in Hollywood. Not bad for a guy whos been dead more than 400 years and who thought his plays were so unworthy of posterity that he never bothered to publish a single one in his lifetime. But Shakespeare possessed what Hollywood would call pop appeal and commercial savvy. He wrote of and for his times and had to please a wide cross section of society. And his rare genius lay in his ability to please the crowds without sacrificing his artistic ambitions.

Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet

Alas poor Yorick... Keneth Branagh tackles Hamlet uncut.

Playing Shakespeare's melancholy Dane won Laurence Olivier an Oscar back in 1948. Now Kenneth Branagh tries his hand at bringing Hamlet to the big screen.

Hamlet: "To be or not to be..."

Although William Shakespeare wrote these lines nearly four centuries ago, the words have lost none of their potency. Actors still see the role of Shakespeare's Hamlet as the yardstick by which to measure their craft. The most recent actor to answer this challenge is Kenneth Branagh, who, at the age of 34, is no stranger to Shakespeare. In 1988, the actor-director brought contemporary urgency to the politics of Henry V and in 1993 he made Much Ado About Nothing a boisterous romantic romp. Last spring he warmed up to the task of adapting Hamlet by making A Midwinter's Tale,  a comedy about misfit actors trying to perform the play. But now Branagh tackles Hamlet in all earnestness.

Shakespeare Trio

Al Pacino is Looking for Richard. (Fox Searchlight)

In recent years, the film industry has looked to the classics more and more for inspiration. As this year draws to a close, viewers will be treated to four very different adaptations of Shakespeare. Kenneth branagh will deliver Hamlet with the Bard's text uncut in December. But this month audiences can see Al Pacino's Looking for Richard, Baz Luhrmann's revamping of Romeo + Juliet, and Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night.

Baz Luhrmann: "I tried to take the attitude that if Shakespeare were here today making movies what would he do? There is no device that he would not grasp at to try and reveal and touch people with the story he's telling. The thing I really set out to do is to smash what I call 'Club Shakespeare,' where you have to be a member to understand it. This man wrote this fantastic play so that everyone could understand it and that's really what we want to do, bring it back for everyone."