Anne Hathaway has been getting much praise for her turn in Les Miserables and is now turning her eye towards another stage classic, albeit one a little bit older. The Wrap is reporting that the actress is slated to star in a new film adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming Of the Shrew.
The Iron Lady scripter Abi Morgan is working on the adaptation for Working Title Pictures. Thanks to a first look deal, Universal Studios will most likely distribute the film.
The play’s story, about a beautiful young woman who is forbidden by her father to marry until her older, less-personable sister is married off first is reportedly being reset from its original 16th century Verona, Italy location to mid-20th century Italy. Presumably Hathaway will play the older sister, the Shrew of the title, as it is by far the meatier of the two parts.
Shakespeare’s works have proven extremely malleable, with many having been adapted into a number of settings beyond how they have been originally written. In 2001, Tim Blake Nelson updated Othello into the high school basketball drama O, while 1956’s Forbidden Planet was loose interpretation of The Tempest. Taming Of The Shrew has been reimagined a number of times including Cole Porter’s stage musical-turned-film Kiss me Kate, the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You and the classic episode of the 1980s mystery comedy series Moonlighting “Atomic Shakespeare.”
