No one can accuse Catherine Hardwicke of being easy to pin down. In her brief directing career she's helmed 13, a hysterical cautionary exploitation film about the utter depravity of the young people today (oh won't someone think of the children!), the totally mediocre seventies skateboarding opus Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story, a kooky yarn about a magical Jew from olden times who could bring people back from the dead and something called Twilight that must have come and gone because I can’t find information about it online.
Yes, Hardwicke seems intent on sucking in every genre. So what’s next for this hard-working hack? How bout a little movie called Hamlet starring noted Z-Boy and Speed Racer Emile Hirsch? Overture Films is developing the modern-day take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of a dude with a fucked-up family, a zany gal pal and mad difficulty making up his mind.
Can Hirsch pull it off? I’m cautiously optimistic. Hirsch may not be Ethan Hawke but he's got the brooding intensity thing down pat. The best part of the press release announcing the project is Overture’s Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett asserting the relevance of arguably the greatest story ever told: “With its universal themes of death, revenge, love and even teen angst – the story of Hamlet is perhaps as timely and influential today as it was when it was written over 400 years ago.”
Shakespeare must be so proud.