Shiny, Sayest Thou?

Comic book lovers, sci-fi nerds, and fans of short-form musicals about supervillains all know who Joss Whedon is.  He, does, after all, have one of the most anticipated films of the next year, The Avengers, coming out soon, which based on the trailer will kick some serious keester.

Now add to his fan base...Shakespeare geeks?

Yes, unbeknownst to apparently 99.99% of the world, Joss Whedon has done a Shakespeare play.  Or more accurately, a film adaptation of a Shakepeare play - even more accurately, Much Ado About Nothing.  Huffington Post reports:

“Nathan Fillion, the current "Castle" star who reached Geek God status by playing Captain Malcolm Reynolds in Whedon's sci-fi series "Firefly," tweeted late Sunday night a link to muchadothemovie.com. That leads to a marquee poster of sorts that reads at top, "Bellwether Pictures is proud to announce the completion of principal photography," and at bottom, "A Film By Joss Whedon, Based On A Play."

Also apparently involved are a lot of Whedon alumni, including Sean Maher (“Firefly”), Amy Acker (“Angel” and “Dollhouse”), Reed Diamond and Fran Kranz (“Dollhouse”).  Little else is known about it - the website has few other details, no release date, and no other links, but it does note that this is “Based on a Play.”  Which ought to clear up any misconceptions that, yes, it’s THAT “Much Ado About Nothing.”  Then again, he said A play.  Not THE play.  Hmm.  Maybe it’s based off of Hamlet.

This may seem like a strange move for the guy who created a series featuring cowboys and Chinese curse words - often at the same time - but as it turns out, Whedon is apparently a Shakespeare fan of his own.  As Tom Hiddleston, who will be starring in The Avengers, pointed out, “Joss is a huge Shakespeare buff.”  See?  You really do learn new stuff every day.

It sure sounds like Whedon is adapting the play and not just taking it verbatim, based on the fact that it’s only based on a play.  This also looks to be an indie film, since Bellwether Studios, the outfit that is putting this out, doesn’t appear to have a website.  And Whedon certainly has experience with that sort of thing - speaking of which, where’s Neil Patrick Harris in all of this?

More details will likely be forthcoming.  The whole effort seems to have been done mostly in secret, with the project just really being announced to the world over the past few days.  But if this proves anything, it’s that Joss Whedon is a Jedi master.  I mean, doing a big-budget flick filled to the gills with A-listers AND cobbling together an indie production of a popular and revered play?

Yep.  Jedi master.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/joss-whedons-much-ado-about-nothing_n_1028070.html