Joss Whedon's 'Much Ado About Nothing'? Nathan Fillion Tweets Link
UPDATE 3:07 PM EST: The film's website put out a press release revealing more details about the film, a modern version of Shakespeare's classic comedy that shot in 12 days in Santa Monica. Acker and Denisof will play the leads, Beatrice and Benedick, with Fillion as Doberry, Gregg as Leonato, Franz as Claudio and Diamond as Don Pedro.
“The text is to me a deconstruction of the idea of love, which is ironic, since the entire production is a love letter – to the text, to the cast, even to the house it’s shot in," Whedon said in the statement.
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PREVIOUSLY: Did "Avengers" director Joss Whedon secretly assemble another star cast for a Shakespearean adaptation?
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."
Underneath -- and above a picture of a man drinking a high baller and snorkeling -- is a list of names that are, presumably, members of the cast. Included are a whole host of alums from Whedon's various past shows: Fillion, Alexis Denisof ("Dollhouse," "Angel" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Amy Acker ("Angel"), Reed Diamond ("Dollhouse"), Sean Maher ("Firefly"), Ashley Johnson ("Dollhouse"), Clark Gregg ("The Avengers"), Tom Lenk ("Buffy" and "Angel"), Fran Kranz ("Dollhouse"), and Riki Lindhome ("Buffy").
Presumably receiving plenty of inquiries from fans, Fillion later tweeted, "Oh, it's real. Very. Very. Real. muchadothemovie.com." Maher also tweeted about it, saying they just wrapped Sunday and telling a fan, "I promise you it's the real deal and we're VERY excited about it!"
The Wrap wrote Sunday night that sources tell them that the film is indeed made, with Whedon having cast, adapted, written and directed the picture.
Despite being well-known for his mastery of sci-fi, Whedon is in fact a major fan of The Bard. At a recent roundtable to discuss his participation in Whedon's Marvel teamup "The Avengers," Tom Hiddleston was asked to compare Whedon with Kenneth Branaugh, his director on the first "Thor" film and a major Shakespearean theater actor.
"The thing about the two of them is that they actually share more than you might first imagine," Hiddleston said. "Weirdly. Joss is a huge Shakespeare buff and Kenneth is a sort of closet comic book fanboy."
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First Posted: 10/24/11 08:36 AM ET Updated: 12/24/11 05:12 AM ET