Fernando Meirelles is part of the recent Latino auteur boom in Hollywood. Along with contemporaries like Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro, Meirelles has made his mark in the film industry with two very different, but highly praised movies. In 2003, he was a surprise nominee for Best Director for the vivid City of God. Two years later, his adaptation of the novel The Constant Gardener was also lauded (and earned Rachel Weisz a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). Now Meirelles is setting his sights on Shakespeare.

Meirelles is involved in two projects related to The Bard. The first is a television series about a Shakespearean acting company based on the Canadian series, Slings and Arrows (I have mentioned S&A several times in this blog, and it ROCKS! If you haven’t seen it, it’s reason enough to get a Netflix subscription). The other Shakespearean cinematic outing for Meirelles is Brazilian version of Love’s Labours Lost. This film will be loose adaptation of the play in a modern setting , thus distancing itself from the other film version of the play, Kenneth Branagh’s commercially unsuccessful 2000 take.

In discussing the projects, Meirelles stated, ““Shakespeare is a heavy drug. The more you read, the more you want to read. Each line has poetry, philosophy, a deep understanding of what we are.” While Shakespeare fans rabidly await these projects, Meirelles’s latest film, Blindness, is making the rounds on the festival circuit building up to a fall release.

Posted Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09:26 and filed under Love's Labours Lost, Film, Branagh. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.