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August 2009

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Hamlet news
Emile Hirsch talks about upcoming film with 'Twilight' director
by Wilson Morales

August 3, 2009

While promoting his latest film, 'Taking Woodstock,' actor Emile Hirsch talked about his next film, which is another adaptation of Shakespeare's play, 'Hamlet.' The film will be directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who recently helmed 'Twilight.'

Emile Hirsch: I'm working on a modern day version of 'Hamlet' with Catherine Hardwicke. It's set at a college and the dialogue isn't Shakespeare. It's a cool twist and dark and it's going to be a thriller-horror movie than the traditional way that it is done. We want to put it in a different genre and see what happens. Our Hamlet is a young college student and an angst aspiring musician who gets in way over his head and has a nervous breakdown.

When do you go into production?

EH: We're not 100% greenlit but we want to start around October 25.

Is it in development at a studio?

EH: It was kinda cool how it came about. I had this cool vision after I read the play and I went to Catherine and she got excited and we got these producers from 'Milk' (Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen) and then we met this writer Ron Nyswaner. We then went and pitched it to 11 different studios before the script was written. It was 4 days of marathon of pitching. Overture Films ended up buying our pitch and paying for Ron to write the script. Now, we have a script and want to start shooting in October.

Will the film have ghosts in it since it's set in a modern day college?

EH: Yeah, but it's scary. It's like a crazy dude holding you with a knife to your throat.

Who else is in the film?

EH: I'm not sure yet. We're trying to get people.

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