Dan Poole and Giles Terera persuaded Britain’s finest acting talents, including Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellen and Ewan, to take part in the film.
Their often comic odyssey took them from Stratford-upon-Avon to Elsinore Castle in Denmark by way of Hollywood and an Irish prison where the inmates are encouraged to perform Shakespeare plays.
Poole and Terera, two actors who met at drama school and had never made a film together before, are hoping it will change the way people think about Shakespeare.The film, Muse Of Fire, was self-funded to the tune of nearly £100,000.
“Growing up, I didn’t feel Shakespeare was particularly well delivered to us at school. When I got to drama school I had a great teacher and then it all made sense,” said Poole.
“I have a total passion for it and I thought it would be fantastic to put this production together and answer questions for people – to make learning about Shakespeare a fun experience.
“It is actually really good fun once you get past the ‘revered status’ thing that Shakespeare has after being hijacked by academia.”
Terera, who has appeared at the National Theatre and recently finished filming London Boulevard with Keira Knightley, said the idea for the film came to him after a conversation with a theatre veteran about Shakespeare. “I knew that it was going to be a film, not a book or theatre. And it was going to be a story about two friends who go on this huge adventure trying to learn as much as they can about performing Shakespeare. It would be an emotional experience as much as an educational one.”
The first person who agreed to appear in the film was Sir Ian McKellen, and the project has snowballed since. Securing interviews with the stars did not come easy – setting up a meeting with Ewan took 18 months because the actor was so busy.
Other famous names who agreed to give the pair their time include Baz Luhrmann, who reinvented Romeo and Juliet in a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes; Jude Law, who invited them to join him at Elsinore Castle, where he was performing Hamlet; plus Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Christopher Eccleston, Sir Trevor Nunn, Brian Cox, Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw.
Dames Helen Mirren and Judi Dench are the last names on the wish list and will record their contributions in the coming weeks.
The secret to getting so many noted actors in their low-budget film was “to be persistent without being obnoxious”, according to Poole, who appeared in Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed production of Jerusalem at the Royal Court.
Raising money for the project was not easy. “It’s a self-funded film. We are relying on people’s good will. A couple of friends put in a little bit of money to help us and we’ve not paid ourselves for our time,” Poole said. “But we don’t really mind about making the money back. It’s about the work, not the money.”
The pair have been in Cannes for the past few days to spread word about the film and hope to submit it to the Sundance festival.
Photo by Bibiana Melzi
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