Joss Whedon - Much Ado About Nothing: A Film By Joss Whedon

With no money and another authors work, Whedon finds his strength in the superb cast, clever staging, and an expert understanding of dialogue Collider Theres joy bubbling under everything, and the film is at its best when it lets that joy out Hitflx.com Whedon fans? Theyll gush over this like Claudio writing a gooey love sonnet to Hero Film.com The result is an utter joy Indiewire A wholly unexpected, what-the-hell passion project... its pretty inspiring Variety This is the funniest Shakespeare film I can recall seeing NewYorkPost.com A faithful yet modern adaptation Splashpage Seeing [Joss Whedon] interpret and adapt the Bard is sure to be a treat Yahoo Movies Canada The film radiates such love and passion, light and meaty in equal measure, its a joy to watch DailyBlam I believe the comedy and I believe the romance CraveOnline.com It is vibrant and bubbly and just clever enough to engage people who wouldnt normally watch a black-and-white micro-budget Shakespeare adaptation Film.com The best part of Joss Whedons adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is probably when Fred and Wesley finally get to be happy together despite the villainous machinations of Simon Tam AVClub.com A labour of love devoted to the Bard Reuters An engaging and very funny adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic CinemaBlend.com The affection with which its been produced is contagious NowToronto.com MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: A FILM BY JOSS WHEDON ISBN: 9781781169353 Published by Titan Books A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd. 144 Southwark. St. London SE1 0UP First edition: October 2013 Much Ado About Nothing: A Film by Joss Whedon copyright 2013 Bellwether Pictures. All rights reserved.

The photographs on pages 10-12 and 188-190 were taken on set by Joss Whedon. The rest of the photographs were taken by Elsa Gullet-Chapuis. Special thanks to Abbie Bernstein for conducting the interviews. Did you enjoy this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please e-mail us at: or write to Reader Feedback at the above address. To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website: www.titanbooks.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. More Joss Whedon titles from Titan Books: Dr Horribles Sing-Along Blog: The Book Firefly: The Official Companion Vol 1-2 The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion BASED ON THE PLAY BYWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Bellwether Pictures TITAN BOOKS

All confusing on many levels. Things I do understand: Art. Food (gluten notwithstanding). Whining. Above all, the thing Ive never cracked, after decades of being, embarrassingly, obsessed with the subject, is me. The most obvious things about me pass me right by.

When I find them out, long after everyone else has, I usually find Ive been writing about them. For years. Thinking I wasnt writing about me -- thinking any artist is ever expressing anything other than themselves. I dont remember deciding to film Much Ado About Nothing. I remember Kai telling me I should - telling me, wisely, that I needed to. A month later I was, and my world, usually black and white, resounded with joyous color.

It was so bright, so right, so extraordinary an experience that it seemed disconnected from everything before and everything after. But what made it so great was only connection, was only the past, the past that had been pushing me to make this movie, just this one, since before I was born. By about 400 years. Lets start there. (Im supposed to say something nice about the writer. Its a thing.) Every artist expresses themselves, but a few find themselves speaking for everyone, and they tend to be remembered.

Shakespeares plays have been a passion of mine since I was old enough to have passions. Not terribly original, but blame the Bard for that. These stories, verses, words... theyre indelible. Theres a distance from the norm - 400 years will do that, plus the conventions of the form - that makes the plays work as pure poetry, as a lost language, as music. But theres an intimacy and insight that makes that music stick, and stick, through centuries.

Hes writing about us, duh. Even when it appears that hes writing about nothing. (Thats what stopped me. For years. Those two words. I had never studied the text, just enjoyed it.

Watched Amy and Alexis dominate that text during a reading at the house, dreamed of shooting them doing it, but always falling back. Not for me. I like stories with a message, an intent. I have nothing to say about nothing.) The readings. They started with my mother (maybe my father was involved, but by the time my memory works its my stepfather beside her). light fare, before the heavier stuff was carved and served. light fare, before the heavier stuff was carved and served.

They started again when James Marsters remarked that doing a particular ep of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was like being in rep. That made me realize that I was surrounded by actors and theater geeks, many of whom understood Shakespeare on levels I never would, and that we ought to celebrate that somehow. We met on Sundays. We read, we drank (less when we got over our initial fear, and way less than the people in this movie) we sang, we talked - we got a good ways through the canon before babies came into the picture and the group went fallow. I was made aware, again and again, what a remarkable bunch of thesps I had at my beck. Kai and I discussed taping the readings - something to put on the internet, perhaps, for schools - but the ephemeral intimacy of the readings was half their charm, and plus it sounded like work.

We decided, if we were going to film one, wed film it. Then Kai built a house. The most inviting, involving home Ive ever been in, let alone lived in. An architect is just like a filmmaker: we create moments for people to move through, strung together to make that movement feel like more than just passage. Its not the wall, its how you see the wall, whats on it, what it does with the light, what it feels like when you walk by it. I knew I wanted to film the house the moment it was finished.

It was, among so many other things, the perfect set. So I had the actors, the location, the tiny budget, the wonderful text... Kai even had a crew in place. My whole career - a large part of my life - had been laying the groundwork for this. What kept me from making a movie? Nothing. Still with the nothing.

I dont remember figuring it out. I walked across the street from the rubbled Manhattan