Next Up? Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus

Taymor's Tempest has come and gone, and next we're about to be bombarded by musical animated garden gnomes. But don't forget that Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus is coming up quickly - it debuts at the Berlin Film Festival next week!

"It's a political thriller", he explains. "A story of power-politics centred around one man and his relationship with his mother." Coriolanus is an unpopular Roman general who, under pressure from his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), seeks to run for consul. Having won over both the Roman senate and the mob, he is undone by the connivances of two tribunes. As a result he is branded a traitor and banished, before forming a coalition of sorts with mortal enemy Tullus Aufidius (Butler) – and returning to Rome in search of vengeance.

I'm very curious to see how this one does. I've got a soft spot for the Tempest, but Coriolanus is a different story. Certainly one of the lesser known plays, rarely taught in school, and a political thriller at that? Certainly a niche audience. Fingers crossed that it makes a good showing.