King of Hollywood

Chapter 446: Chapter 168 Simultaneous Shooting

“Everyone ready, we’re starting the first test shoot,” Adrian clapped his hands and shouted aloud as “Shakespeare in Love” officially began filming.

The story is quite simple—a variation of “Romeo and Juliet” supplemented by many small details, such as the female protagonist’s name, Viola, which comes from one of Shakespeare’s four great comedies, “Twelfth Night.” This movie is loved by many for its surreal feeling of the author enacting his own works.

However, in Adrian’s view, the original movie fell short in this regard; it had not fully exploited this advantage. After all, this was a new style, and the producers could not be sure how many people would accept it, which was one of the reasons the script had been shelved. But Adrian knew exactly how popular this style was. Although “Shakespeare in Love” won the Oscar for Best Picture, partly or perhaps even mostly due to public relations efforts, this did not detract from its excellence.

So he was bolder in this respect, adding more details from Shakespeare’s plays, such as the beginning of the movie, where the theatre owner, finally able to open for business after a plague, had no good scripts and had to press the inspirationally drained Shakespeare, even resorting to threats.

“Damn it, you should know, William, you owe me a considerable sum of money!” the theatre owner roared loudly.

“Enough, Charlotte, look at yourself now, no different from a greedy Jew,” Shakespeare said nonchalantly.

“Hell, pay up, or produce a script,” the owner retorted angrily, knowing his threats were feigned, which did not hinder him from continuing the act, “Listen, if you delay further, I’ll appeal to the judge to cut a pound of flesh from your chest as repayment!”

“That’s great,” Shakespeare replied with a cheeky grin, “Go ahead, Charlotte, I’d be very willing to do that.”

“Hey, William, you’re not serious, are you?” someone nearby immediately asked.

“It’s fine, just a pound of flesh, neither more nor less, without shedding blood, otherwise, he could be sued for premeditated murder,” Shakespeare stated languidly, instantly infuriating the theatre owner.

This snippet came from another of Shakespeare’s four great comedies: “The Merchant of Venice.” Adrian even simply changed the theatre owner’s name to Charlotte. There were many more such segments, and of course, Adrian also carefully observed the boundaries, discussing the application of these segments with many British playwrights through Shawen’s connections to avoid going too far.