Most filmmakers would prefer for a vacation after wrapping a big budget blockbuster , but not Joss Whedon . After he finished 2012’sThe Avengers , the manager decided to turn his attention to a mod retelling of Shakespeare’sMuch Ado About Nothing . Shot in fatal and blank over the course of 12 day at Whedon ’s home — and using the original textbook , which Whedon adapt into a screenplay — Much Adofeatures Whedon regulars Amy Acker ( Angel , Dollhouse ) , Alexis Denisof ( Angel ) , Fran Kranz ( Dollhouse , The Cabin in the Woods ) , Clark Gregg ( The Avengers ) , Tom Lenk ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ) , and Nathan Fillion ( Buffy , Firefly ) . AfterMuch Adoscreened at SXSW this week , Whedon and his cast seat down for a dialog box to discuss the challenges , joys , and collaborative process of making the film .
ShootingMuch Ado , Whedon allege , was therapeutic because he was with people he loves , “ doing work not just that I love , but doing it in that sort of compress , we only have this much time , kind of spicy sign . You walk aside every day [ with an ] enormous sense of accomplishment . As oppose toThe Avengers , where you ’re take one - one-tenth of a instant of an burst over the course of a week . [ Much Ado ] feel enough like theater to give you that in high spirits all the metre , yet it felt like we were create something unfeignedly cinematic . You do n’t commonly get both . ”
AlthoughMuch Adohas been done before , Whedon get word the child’s play differently than many others who have turned it into a plastic film . “ It ’s a very cynically romantic text about beloved — how we bear in sexual love and how much we ’re manipulated , and that was an in I had n’t see in any of the productions , ” he said . “ It ’s always very joyful and fun , but there ’s something darker at the warmness of it as well . And to have those two things to play with at once set about to fascinate me . ”
Only a few of the actors had ever performed Shakespeare professionally , so there was a large learning curve there . Fillion , who signal up right away and then essay to chicken out , summed it up as “ intimidating . terrible . I peed a footling . ” ( To which Gregg , who formally join just a twenty-four hour period before shot began , react , “ I peed a circumstances . ” ) The key , Fillion said , was knowing that Shakespeare “ is flowery , and a fiddling like Yoda . Lock that in , and you ’re golden . ”
But Denisof say that when Whedon call in , you really do n’t ever say no . “ You always say yes , and then occupy about it afterward , ” Denisof say . “ Honestly , there was n’t that much clip to worry about it , because he said ‘ Oh by the way , we ’re doing it in a couple of weeks . ’ From then on , it was just starting to work on it . ” Whedon would often put the worker in mathematical group to exercise through tantrum , or the role player would work on their own .
Though Whedon did use Shakespeare ’s text , he put his own spin on it . For one , the picture choose place in the present daylight . For another , it ’s pretty sexy . In Whedon ’s rendition , Beatrice ( Acker ) and Benedick ( Denisof ) have been fan before — a pick the actors made with Whedon . “ It matte right , ” he allege . The director did n’t storyboard to make up for the Bard ’s sparse stage direction , but he did map out the activity very specifically . “ plain you ca n’t just bedevil Amy Acker down the stair , you have to have a pad there . I do n’t getthatrule ! ” Whedon jest . “ A lot of it came from the actors , [ too ] . You ask both . You demand a sight of what ’s map out , especially when you ’re working at that kind of speed , but you also want to give them the way , because everyone here is so imaginative , and they understood their characters better than I ever could , that ’s just how it work . ”
Much Ado About Nothingwill hit theaters June 21 , 2013 .
