"All the world's a stage," The Bard wrote in As You Like It, and filmmakers love to update Shakespeare's work, setting it all over the place. Richard Eyre is the latest to bring one of his plays, in this case, King Lear, to the screen, and the trailer has made its entrance, for those Stateside readers who don't have access to the Beeb.
Set in the fictional present, King Lear begins as the 80 year-old Lear (Anthony Hopkins) divides his kingdom among his daughters, Goneril (Emma Thompson), Regan (Emily Watson) and Cordelia (Florence Pugh), according to their affection for him. Cordelia refuses to flatter him, so he banishes her. Having acquired power, Goneril and Regan expel their father from their homes. At the same time, Lear's prime minister, Gloucester (Jim Broadbent), is betrayed by his son Edmund (John Macmillan) and his other son, Edgar (Andrew Scott), is forced to go into hiding. Lear becomes mad, Gloucester is blinded: both the kingdom and the family collapse into chaos and warfare. Lear and Cordelia are re-united; for a brief moment love reigns, then tragedy descends.
Eyre has rounded up quite the cast for this one, which he adapts using Shakespeare's original text. Alongside the heavy hitters mentioned above, you'll also see Jim Carter, Tobias Menzies and Christopher Eccleston. King Lear will arrive on Prime Video on 28 September.
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