The Tempest

The Tempest is an upcoming American-British fantasy film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare and is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars in it. The film also features Idris Elba, Letitia Wright, Logan Lerman, Asia Kate Dillon, Andy Serkis, Richard Ayoade, Rob Corrdry, Parminder Nagra, Daniel Craig and David Harewood.

The film is considered a return to form for Branagh who had not directed a film based on Shakespeare's work since the 2006 movie As You Like It. It is also his first time starring in a Shakespeare film since the 2000 movie Love's Labour's Lost, though unlike the films before, he does not star in a lead role, but instead in a supporting role.

Plot
The film follows the plot of the original play almost faithfully.

On a far off remote island, Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, uses his newfound magic powers to send the titular storm to sink the boat carrying the king and his cohorts who betrayed him. Among the wreck is the king's son Ferdinand who meets Prospero's daughter Miranda and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, King Alonso is washed up with a few other lords, two of whom, Antonio and Sebastian, plan to usurp him. Elsewhere, the king's jester and butler, Trinculo and Stephano, encounter Caliban, Prospero's native servant, who tricks the two into helping with his poorly planned scheme. All the while, Prospero has his sprite servant, Ariel, overlook all the intertwining events.

While faithful, the film does have some divergents. The most notable being changing Gonzalo's gender to Gonzala, thus having the character serve almost as a love interest for Prospero and altering the implications of the text to lean towards it. The setting is also given an ambiguous time period with much of the slightly anachronistic clothing set up to imply either the distant past or a post-apocalyptic future. The film also allows for multiple edits to depict scenes in the past with Sycorax, who is only mentioned in the play, given a silent cameo in the film.

Cast
Additionally, Helena Bonham Carter has a non-speaking cameo as Sycorax. Benedict Wong and Jordi Mollà appear as Francisco and Adrian, respectively, two lords under Alonso. The three goddesses called upon by Prospero include Estelle Swaray as Iris, Brenda Song as Ceres and Kylie Minogue as Juno. Minor roles include Peter Callan as the Master and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as the Boatswain.
 * Idris Elba as Prospero
 * Letitia Wright as Miranda
 * Logan Lerman as Ferdinand
 * Asia Kate Dillon as Ariel
 * Andy Serkis as Caliban
 * Richard Ayoade as Trinculo
 * Rob Corddry as Stephano
 * Kenneth Branagh as King Alonso
 * Parminder Nagra as Gonzala
 * Daniel Craig as Sebastian
 * David Harewood as Antonio

Production
The film was announced after Kenneth Branagh completed work on Artemis Fowl. Branagh had expressed interest in returning to do Shakespeare adaptations feeling that he had "strayed from [his] calling". He considered The Tempest as being the quintessential Shakespeare play as he felt that with it being his last solo play, it had all of Shakespeare's famous elements. "I think deep down, Shakespeare knew this would be his last play and he wanted to go out on a real high note. I wanted to take his story and make it feel like a grand finale." Branagh was going to self produce the film, but was approached by Alan F. Horn about doing another project under Disney. When he told him he wanted to do The Tempest, he was surprised by Horn wanting to do it. This act, according to Branagh, cemented DIsney's "legitimacy" as a film studio.

Branagh learned that Julie Taymor had already done a film adaptation in 2010 and watched it to make sure he did not accidentally mimic any of her ideas. He was slightly taken aback by Taymor's decision to turn Prospero into a woman, but he enjoyed the performance enough to return the favor by having Gonzalo be portrayed as a woman. "When Julie did her version, she turned Prospero into a woman. I thought the change was remarkable, but it also brought something to the text that I wanted to try which was add another romantic element...I decided to make Gonzalo into a woman to reflect that."

During the casting process, Branagh had planned to cast himself as Prospero, but decided against it after having a conversation with Idris Elba who he had previously worked with on Thor. Branagh found Elba to be "world weary" and wanted to diversify the cast. Ariel tended to be portrayed by either a boy or a girl. Branagh felt that this added an air of androgyny to the character and decided to cast non-binary actor Asia Kate Dillon who by coincidence starred in a production of The Tempest early in their career. Branagh had the entire cast perform the whole play with blocking included in a sound studio in Burbank California which Andy Serkis joked that it was not all that different from performing the actual play.

Filming took place in Hawaii with additional filming taking place at Pinewood Studios for many of the deep forest scenes. To have the island appear more magical and unnatural, various plants from Australia, Africa and Japan were flown in. During the Prospero's soliloquy, the scene shifts to the actual Globe Theater in Southwark London England.

Reviews
The film currently holds a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.