Though it was only shot recently, director Michael Almereyda has already assembled a promo for his take on William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, which takes the lesser-known play and gives it an update that appears to blend the modern stylings of Baz Luhrmann’s** Romeo + Juliet** and the grittier edges of Sons Of Anarchy for a violent crime drama. The first trailer has now emerged online.
Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Anton Yelchin, Dakota Johnson, Penn Badgley, John Leguizamo and Delroy Lindo star in a labyrinthine romance which on the page includes deception, disguises, cross-dressing and supernatural intervention. We don’t see much evidence of the spookier elements, but there are a lot of guns and cars on display, plus the cast giving it their best Bard. The setting this time is among dirty cops and drug-dealing bikers in a crime-ridden modern-day America.
Johnson plays Imogen, who disobeys her father (Ed Harris)’s wishes that she marry the dull Cloten (Anton Yelchin) by instead romancing orphan Posthumous (Badgley). Jovovich, meanwhile is the Queen, a master manipulator who is married to Harris. Almereyda and Hawke’s second Shakespeare adaptation should be in cinemas next year.