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Gnomeo and Juliet Is Really Happening
http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2009/10/20/shakespeare-goes-gardening-in-gnomeo-juliet/
[Thanks, Twitter!]
If we go all the way back to April, 2006 we find our first mention of Gnome and Juliet, the Disney animated version of Romeo and Juliet, in the world of garden gnomes.
Looks like it is actually happening, as you’ve got Eugene Levy on video talking about doing voice work for it. Scheduled for release in 2011. Cool!
I just wish I could get somebody to listen to me and do The Tempest, instead of R and J again. After all, I’ve already got a version with seals.
UPDATE : Since Levy does not mention it, here’s a link with more of a direct Disney connection. It’s part of their Miramax studios.
5 comments:
What is the point of Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending?
Christopher wrote..."What is the point of Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending?"
Box Office.
I'd pay a buck to see Romeo and Juliet done with garden gnomes.
No, wait. I wouldn't.
Yeah, I'm with Michael!
I heard that there's this one dude who wants to retell *Hamlet* with frickin *LIONS*. Can you imagine? That will tank.
And don't get me started on the dude who's all "Hey, let's make it a musical about street gangs!" I mean, can you imagine? That'll close on opening day.
Romeo and Juliet as garden gnomes is no different to me than a Grimm's Fairy Tale without the gore, and Disney's made a fair nickel on that business model. If it gets the stories and characters into our consciousness at an early enough age we can do away with all this "Shakespeare is too hard" nonsense. Unrequited love? Two households both alike in dignity? check, that's R&J. Uncle kills the dad, son avenges? There's your Hamlet. Why not "magician father has to be convinced to let daughter live her own happily ever after", or "humans in the woods run into fairies who mess with them" or "overprotective dad won't let him popular daughter date unless older shrewish sister dates too" or "guy convinces his former friend that his girlfriend is cheating on him"....get the idea?
I can live with that, in whatever form the characters take. It's *not* Shakespeare, but that doesn't mean it can't be a good story/movie. It's got a heck of a foundation to work off of.
In principle, Duane, on the one hand, you know how much I agree with you. But that doesn't cancel out thoughts and feelings about the rest of what I do know. It never hurts to see where the reflection of a many-sided prism could potentially land.
"New" vehicle. More money. More Disney perpetual copyrights. More control. More money. --Tough to argue with success, I know. Even tougher to argue with the control success allows--especially in media--where it's also especially dangerous.
Finished with transforming Broadway into a cost-prohibitive, insipid, proprietary dog and pony reality show, have their sights landed on Shakespeare?
I think the importance of the Shakespeare element might not be first on their agenda. It may not even be on their agenda at all. So, who's it left up to? Parents like you. How many of you are out there? Just a thought.
I used to like "Disney". He died. The phoenix, risen from his ashes, is a big, ugly, corporate machine. And here's the irony--it's managed by Iago.
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