Joss Whedon wanted to take a break after making The Avengers and do something small. As a result, Whedon asked a number of his acting troupe if they would be willing to come to his house for 12 days and shoot a black and white adaptation of the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing.
This screenplay book includes the full script of the play (which had some tweaks from the original writings by the Bard to adapt it for the movie, but is still spoken in Shakespeare’s original prose), a ton of photographs, an introduction by Joss Whedon and an interview with Whedon about making the movie.
I won’t get into the script too much, but will say this is a great chance for aspiring screenwriters to see how to adapt Shakespeare while adding the necessary stage actions needed for the movie. It is also never a bad thing to read a Shakespeare play.
The introduction was a nice fun read as well, but the real treat of this book (other than the fantastic photographs) is the interview with Whedon. He talks a lot about how he was able to get the cast for the movie (they have been performing Shakespeare at Whedon’s house since James Marsters mentioned Shakespeare while playing Spike back on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He also talked about how they were able to pull off shooting it his home over the short 12 days, and a ton of other stuff – from writing the score himself to how valuable his friends and cast members were for the film.
I love screenplay books, and this one is more than just a script. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves owning scripts, fans of Joss Whedon and anyone else who just wants to learn more about this very interesting Much Ado About Nothing.
