Shakespeare, Tarantino's works to be combined for unique film

Connoisseurs of Quentin Tarantino's riveting, action-paced cinema and British playwright William Shakespeare's works now have a chance to get a taste of a reworking of the classic play "Macbeth" with the images and style of "Kill Bill", "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" colliding together.

Shakespeare's timeless, blood-soaked tale of murder, lust and power is to get a modern movie makeover in "Macbeth - Kill Bill Shakespeare", as director Malachi Bogdanov combines "Macbeth" with Tarantino's best loved films.

In order to make the film a reality, the producers have launched a crowdfunding campaign that has already received financial backing from actor Ian McKellen.

"This a fantastic opportunity to create a movie that will change the way young people look at Shakespeare and hopefully inspire them to explore his great works a little further," Bogdanov said in a statement.

"We believe that for younger audiences, the accessible nature of the project will have a wide-reaching appeal. Getting young people to appreciate Shakespeare, or indeed any classic, is a hard sell, but the enormous amount of positive feedback and reviews from the live shows means we are on the right track," he added.

The cast will be made up of graduates from Birmingham School of Acting, who starred in the stage version that proved a hit with audiences in Birmingham earlier this year and commemorated 400 years since Shakespeare's death.

Birmingham School of Acting, part of Birmingham City University, will also supply costumes, sets and props for the upcoming shoot.

The descent of Macbeth into madness and his relentless pursuit of his own destruction fuelled by paranoid fantasies of power and betrayal, will find poignant echoes in the violent world inhabited by Tarantino's gangsters, drug dealers and deadly assassins.

Underscored by a highly charged modern soundtrack, cinematic form and theatrical convention are being combined to create a movie that promises to be fast, furious, comic and provocative.

The film will be shot over 12 days in September in Birmingham City University's Parkside Building, where the filmmakers will have access to the institution's facilities in its four studios, as well as Europe's largest static green screen.

Although the film will be given a wide release, those behind the project will be targeting distribution among schools and universities around the world.

--IANS

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