The 2010 Venice Film Festival will finally screen Julie Taymor's long-anticipated fantasy film The Tempest, based on the Shakespeare play.
Helen Mirren is 'Prospera', a feminized version of the dark sorceror in the original play. Taymor directed the extremely gory and dark Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins, from Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus' in 1999 to critical acclaim and amazement.
In Shakespeare's fantastical thriller 'The Tempest', the magician Prospero orchestrates spirits, monsters, a grief-stricken king, a wise old councillor, two treacherous brothers and a storm at sea into a fantastical conspiracy bringing banishment, sorcery and shipwreck into the lives of two hapless lovers to stir and seal their fate.
In Taymor's version, Prospero takes female form as Prospera, giving her journey of vengeance and self-discovery a wholly new resonance. As Prospera breaks her magical staff against an entrancing volcanic landscape at the end of her heroic quest, this poignant story of love and forgiveness translates into a riveting and filmic mystical tale, for our own times.
The Tempest, which will be the closing film of the festival, was completed in April 2010 and stars Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, and Chris Cooper.
Helen Mirren as 'Prospera'.
Some of Taymor's standardly awesome stylistic elements
Prospera's magical cavern
