New York Times
By PATRICK HEALY
“Shakespeare in Love,” the 1998 romantic comedy that won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and acting honors for Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench, is the latest film being eyed for adaptation to the stage. Two leading producers, Disney Theatrical Productions and the British impresario Sonia Friedman, have been holding meetings with the playwright Tom Stoppard – who shared an original screenplay Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love” with Marc Norman – and the director Jack O’Brien about the project, according to theater executives familiar with the creative discussions.
The new version would be a straight play, an exception to the movie-to-stage trend; most films these days are turned into musicals, most recently “Catch Me If You Can,” “Ghost,” “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” and “Sister Act.” Mr. Stoppard and Mr. O’Brien are long-time collaborators on plays: They won Tony Awards — for best play and best director — in 2007 for Mr. Stoppard’s Russian-history drama “The Coast of Utopia,” and they were both Tony nominees in 2001 for “The Invention of Love.”
No deals have been signed by the two men, but the producers want to collaborate with them as well as with the designer Bob Crowley on the project, according to the executives. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the project is meant to be confidential at this stage.
The plot centers on a young Shakespeare (played in the film by Joseph Fiennes), lovelorn and suffering from writer’s block. In a fit he destroys his latest play, “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter,” and decides to rewrite it as “Romeo and Juliet,” while falling into a romance with a young would-be actress (Ms. Paltrow) who has disguised herself as a man to star in the new play. Ms. Paltrow won the Oscar for best actress, while Ms. Dench won a supporting actress Oscar for a few brief scenes as Queen Elizabeth I.
Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical, was scheduled to fly from Madrid – where a new production of “The Lion King” opened on Thursday night – to London for business meetings next week. It was not clear if he would be meeting with Mr. Stoppard, though executives described their talks about “Shakespeare in Love” as ongoing. Disney holds the rights to develop “Shakespeare in Love,” which was produced by Miramax Films, which at the time was a part of the Walt Disney Company.
A spokesman for Disney Theatrical on Friday declined to comment on the project. Ms. Friedman is one of the busiest producers in London and New York; she is currently represented on Broadway with “The Mountaintop” and “The Book of Mormon,” and last season was a producer of the Broadway revival of Mr. Stoppard’s “Arcadia” (as was Disney Theatrical) as well as “Jerusalem,” The House of Blue Leaves,” and “La Bete.”
The new version would be a straight play, an exception to the movie-to-stage trend; most films these days are turned into musicals, most recently “Catch Me If You Can,” “Ghost,” “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” and “Sister Act.” Mr. Stoppard and Mr. O’Brien are long-time collaborators on plays: They won Tony Awards — for best play and best director — in 2007 for Mr. Stoppard’s Russian-history drama “The Coast of Utopia,” and they were both Tony nominees in 2001 for “The Invention of Love.”
No deals have been signed by the two men, but the producers want to collaborate with them as well as with the designer Bob Crowley on the project, according to the executives. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the project is meant to be confidential at this stage.
The plot centers on a young Shakespeare (played in the film by Joseph Fiennes), lovelorn and suffering from writer’s block. In a fit he destroys his latest play, “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter,” and decides to rewrite it as “Romeo and Juliet,” while falling into a romance with a young would-be actress (Ms. Paltrow) who has disguised herself as a man to star in the new play. Ms. Paltrow won the Oscar for best actress, while Ms. Dench won a supporting actress Oscar for a few brief scenes as Queen Elizabeth I.
Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical, was scheduled to fly from Madrid – where a new production of “The Lion King” opened on Thursday night – to London for business meetings next week. It was not clear if he would be meeting with Mr. Stoppard, though executives described their talks about “Shakespeare in Love” as ongoing. Disney holds the rights to develop “Shakespeare in Love,” which was produced by Miramax Films, which at the time was a part of the Walt Disney Company.
A spokesman for Disney Theatrical on Friday declined to comment on the project. Ms. Friedman is one of the busiest producers in London and New York; she is currently represented on Broadway with “The Mountaintop” and “The Book of Mormon,” and last season was a producer of the Broadway revival of Mr. Stoppard’s “Arcadia” (as was Disney Theatrical) as well as “Jerusalem,” The House of Blue Leaves,” and “La Bete.”
