Inspired by Shakespeare |
She’s the Man (2006)
Donners’ Company, Dreamworks SKG, and Lakeshore Entertainment. Twelfth Night is transported to a modern private boys school when female athlete Viola must disguise herself as a boy after her own school’s soccer team is cut.
King of Texas (2002)
Hallmark Entertainment and Turner Network Television. King Lear set on a ranch in the Old West. Television production.
Get Over It! (2001)
Ignite Entertainment and Miramax Films. A high school boy gets involved in a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to win his girlfriend back, until he falls in love with her younger sister.
O (2001)
FilmEngine and Lions Gate Films. Othello set in a modern high school, with the basketball coach’s white son jealous of the black star of the team and his beautiful girlfriend.
Scotland, PA (2001)
Abandon Pictures. Macbeth plays itself out in a fast food restaurant as Joe McBeth is persuaded to kill his boss and take over Duncan’s burger kingdom.
The Distinct Smell of Red (2000)
Malamute Entertainment. A lonely flower shop employee becomes obsessed with trying to find his Juliet after reading the Cliff Notes for Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo Must Die (2000)
Silver Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. A Romeo and Juliet adaptation featuring Chinese and black mob families as the Montagues and Capulets and lots of kung fu.
Let the Devil Wear Black (1999)
New Moon Productions. Hamlet is updated to modern-day southern California as a moody grad student is compelled to take revenge on his uncle for his father’s death.
Macbeth in Manhattan (1999)
Amber Waves. A troupe of actors unfamiliar with the curse on the Scottish Play stage a production of Macbeth: mayhem ensues.
Midsummer (1999)
Kerwin Productions. A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Egyptian elements.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
A Mad Chance/Jaret Entertainment Production and Touchstone Pictures. The Taming of the Shrew set in a modern California high school.
The Tempest (1998)
Bonnie Raskin Production and NBC Studios. The story of The Tempest set in the Civil War South.
A Thousand Acres (1997)
Beacon Communications LLC and Touchstone Pictures. King Lear on a Midwestern American farm, where three daughters despise their abusive father.
Love is All There Is (1996)
Cinema 7 and Samuel Goldwyn Company. Romeo and Juliet with two rival restaurant-owning Italian families in New York at constant odds—especially after their children fall in love.
The Lion King (1994)
Walt Disney Pictures. An animated tale of a lion cub, who after seeing his father killed, must find the strength to replace his evil uncle as the leader of the pride, is based loosely on Hamlet.
Renaissance Man (1994)
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, Inc. and Touchstone Pictures. A former advertising man finds work teaching Hamlet and Henry V to army recruits at a base camp.
Men of Respect (1991)
Arthur Goldblatt Productions and Central City Films. After hearing a prophecy, a hitman executes his superiors and rises to the head of a mob family with dire consequences in this film inspired by Macbeth.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
New Line Cinema. The story of two hustlers on a journey to find peace and a long-lost mother, inspired by Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (1990)
Brandenberg and Buena Vista Home Video. Two minor characters from Hamlet ponder life, reality, and the stage with the help of a group of traveling players.
The Dead Poets’ Society (1989)
Silver Screen Partners IV and Touchstone Pictures. A drama about an inspiring teacher at a stuffy boys’ school that includes a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a major plot element.
China Girl (1987)
Great American Films Limited Partnership. Romeo and Juliet in New York City, with rival Italian and Chinese gangs as the feuding families.
King Lear (1987)
Cannon Films. The great works of art have been lost and William Shaksper Junior the Fifth tries to reconstruct King Lear after being reminded of its plot by the strange inhabitants at a nearby resort.
To Be or Not to Be (1983)
20th Century Fox and Brooksfilms Ltd. During the occupation of Poland, stage actors engaged in a production of Hamlet use parts of the play to prevent information about the Resistance from reaching the Nazis; remake.
Tempest (1982)
Columbia Pictures Corporation. Adaptation of The Tempest set in the modern-day United States and Greece.
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Warner Brothers Pictures. Although not directly based on a Shakespeare play, the plot involves a production of Richard III.
Harry and Tonto (1974)
20th Century Fox. After his life-long New York City home is torn down, a retired schoolteacher makes a cross-country journey to visit his estranged children in this adaptation of King Lear.
West Side Story (1961)
The Mirisch Corporation and United Artists. A musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in New York in the 1950s, with gangs called the Jets and the Sharks replacing the Montagues and Capulets.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The plot of The Tempest is transported to an isolated planet inhabited only by the eccentric Dr. Morbius, his beautiful daughter, and his frightening creation.
Kiss Me, Kate (1953)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Musical inspired by The Taming of the Shrew, with backstage drama mirroring the play that the actors perform onstage.