Maybe not the most anticipated Joss Whedon film right now, but it is based on popular source material...

CBS have debuted the first clip from Joss Whedon's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, the mega-blockbuster that Joss Whedon took a break from to film the black-and-white, micro-budget The Avengers in 12 days. Wait, wrong way round...

The clip's at the end of the video, after several minutes of talking about The Avengers. But no-one's interested in that one, right? (By the way, that was sarcasm. Just making that clear, so no fanboys instinctively Hulk-smash the comments.)

Following on from his brilliant performance in Dollhouse and his brilliant performance in The Cabin in the Woods, Joss Whedon has cast Fran Kranz again, in the role of Claudio. Newcomer Jillian Morgese plays Hero, and Beatrice and Benedick are played by Fred and Wesley Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof.

The Whedon alums Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Sean Maher, and Tom Lenk are also in the cast, as well as Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Ashley Johnson, Emma Bates, Nick Kocher, Brian McElhaney, Joshua Zar, Paul M. Meston, and Romy Rosemont.

Much Ado About Nothing will hit the festival circuit, "because it is fancy" (as the press release puts it), and then presumably go on general (or at least limited) release. It may make its festival debut in 2012, or early 2013, but not even the director of photography knows for sure, as of the latest news on that front.

Until then, as with The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers, we'll just have to speculate fervently about what might possibly happen in the play. It's not like anyone's done anything similar in the last few hundred years... (That was also sarcasm. Just to be clear. You know what those Shakespeare fanboys are like; all brooding soliloquies and "To be or not to be..." and talking to skulls and suchlike...*)

In my second spoiler-free review of The Cabin in the Woods, I noted the similarities between Joss Whedon's and William Shakespeare's approaches to dialogue. Not that The Cabin in the Woods is Shakespeare, exactly: For a start, it has more [spoilers] and [spoilers], not to mention [spoilers]... Though, more seriously, it does also concern characters in dramatically heightened situations, shedding insight into society and human nature. As does the rest of Whedon's work; which positions him as a natural successor to Shakespeare.

Note: Embedding of this video was later disabled. Here's the direct YouTube Link. - Ed

(via Whedonesque)

The film's official site: http://www.muchadothemovie.com/

* On that note, Hamlet adaptation next please Joss. Kthxbai.

See also:

Top 23 things that Joss Whedon should do post-Avengers
Awesome low-budget The Avengers trailer spoof
Joss Whedon's secret Shakespeare film adaptation
Joss Whedon almost became a theatre director

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