Shakespeare: a fellow of infinite jest, of excellent fancy, yet where be his gibes now? His gambols? His flashes of merriment? His production deals? Alas, poor Shakespeare, he died centuries before getting a good agent, so it's up to modern-day TV writers to haul his skull from the ground and kiss the lips that those mining the public domain have kissed we know not how oft, the latest of these being Fox's "sophisticated, contemporary spin" on Hamlet. According to Deadline, former West Wing writer Paul Redford has just sold America's Son, a Hamlet-based "part juicy soap, part political thriller" set among the corridors of power in Washington D.C., where a "renegade JFK Jr. type" investigates the mystery of his father's death in a car accident, only to uncover a vast web of family lies that leads him to seek revenge. (Though not Revenge, as that show already exists and is based on The Count Of Monte Cristo. And not on motorcycles, as that's the contemporary spin on Hamlet offered by Sons Of Anarchy.) Once more, the play's the thing [that you can rewrite with younger sexy people and claim for yourself].
Join the discussion...