Character: Prospera

Directed by: Julie Taymor

Written by: Julie Taymor

Produced by: Julie Taymor, Robert Chartoff, Lynn Hendee, Julia Taylor-Stanley, Jason K. Lau

Cast Members: Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, David Straitharn

Released date: December 10, 2010

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Shakespeare's epic play is translated from page to screen, with the gender of the main character, Prospero, changed from male to female.

Trivia

→ The decision to switch the gender of the lead character was a diving board to a whole new appreciation of the play. It had everything to do with Helen Mirren and a coincidental exchange that Julie Taymor had with the actress. When Taymor encountered Helen Mirren at a party, she had already envisioned Mirren in the role and their conversation cemented her decision. “We were talking Shakespeare,” Taymor recollects, “and she had no idea I was planning this film when she mentioned that the first Shakespeare she ever did was Caliban in ‘The Tempest,’ and she actually said to me, ‘You know, I could play Prospero-as a woman.’ And I said, ‘Do you want to? Because I’ve been preparing a film version of “The Tempest” with exactly that in mind.’ And, fortunately, she said yes.”

Character’s Quotes

• We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep.
• Be cheerful sir, our revels now are ended.
• I will plague them all, even to roaring!