Oh, I love this play. I love it so much. Beatrice and Benedick are just head-butting perfection and the dialogue is biting all the time and I love the romance and just … everything. So when I heard months and months ago that Joss Whedon of all people had written and directed a Much Ado About Nothing movie in a 12 day span while still working on The Avengers … I was flabbergasted. Flabbergasted with joy! Oh, and some of my (and Whedon’s) favorite actors in the cast. As the press release says:

Filmed in just 12 days entirely on location
in exotic Santa Monica, the film features a stellar cast of beloved (or
soon to be beloved) actors – some of them veterans of Shakespearean
theater, some completely new to the form. But all dedicated to the idea
that this story bears retelling, that this dialogue is as fresh and
intoxicating as any being written, and that the joy of working on a
passion project surrounded by dear friends, admired colleagues and an
atmosphere of unabashed rapture far outweighs their hilariously
miniature paychecks.

 Again, flabbergasted with joy.

It’s been making the festival circuit this fall, but I’m please to say that an overall US release date has been made for June 7, 2013. And of course that feels way, way too far away. But I’m just excited that it is being released in theaters … I’m also grateful that I leave very close to an arts cinema that should get it.