Kenneth Branagh is in the throes of filming a three-hour adaptation of "Hamlet" in his native England, an on-location venture that will open in the United States as a major holiday film in the fall.
It's a huge undertaking, from the 70mm, wide-screen equipment to the all-star cast he has employed - including a few performers we don't normally associate with Shakespeare.Would you believe Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal?
"I was going for actors I admire and that I wanted to work with," Branagh explained during a telephone interview from England. "Their so-called `image' is secondary."
Despite the pressures that come with such a project, Branagh was taking a few days off to fly into Salt Lake City Thursday for the Sundance Film Festival, which is screening another Branagh movie, "A Midwinter's Tale," as the opening-night event. And it's a far cry from the epic "Hamlet" he's filming now.
Branagh wrote and directed "A Mid-winter's Tale," but he does not appear in the film. It's a farcical comedy about a rag-tag theatrical troupe trying to mount an unconventional stage production of . . . what else? . . . "Hamlet."
The film features no stars, it was made on a very modest budget and Branagh filmed it in black and white.
Sundance program director Geoffrey Gil-more says Branagh's little film is the perfect Sundance opener. "It's not conventional Shakespeare, nor a conventional farce. Branagh has done something quite exceptional here, outside of his more serious vein, the works that have established his reputation. He's trying to broaden our vision of what he can do.
"It's also a film that just works wonderfully well. It really pays off emotionally. For the opening night, it's the kind of film that will make people feel something. It's just terrific filmmaking."
Branagh said he purposely made the movie in the spirit of the storyline. "That was always the intention. It did give us tremendous freedom, and I used many of the actors I'd toured with, so we were sort of a company making a picture. That also applies to the technicians and the crew, who all worked for reduced fees."
Three of those actors will join Branagh for the Sundance opening - Michael Mal-oney and Nicolas Farrell, both of whom also appear on-screen with Branagh in "Othello" (opening in Salt Lake theaters Friday), and John Sessions.
As for using black-and-white photography, Branagh said he wanted to recall comedies of an earlier era. "Part of it had to do with a love of the old black-and-white movies. But there's also something pleasingly old-fashioned about it. I didn't want it to be too realistic - it is about slightly crazed romanticism, people who wish the world were different, that the world itself were not so brutal and indifferent. And black and white sort of takes it into the kind of fary tale world they would all like to live in."
The story of this theatrical troupe's travails resembles Branagh's own early stage experiences. "Unfortunately. Too much in some places."
And at least one character was written specifically for the actor who plays him, Richard Briers. "I sat in a dressing room with him in Tokyo once, and he was getting ready to play `King Lear' to seven people and a dog.
"He was staring in the mirror, with his crown on at a rakish angle, and he said, `I hate Shakespeare. I hate acting. I hate audiences. And I hate Tokyo.' And then he goes out and gives them a great performance! Afterward, I asked him why, and he said, `Because I can't do anything else.' "
Maloney plays the idealistic, wide-eyed focus of the ensemble, and Branagh admits with a chuckle, "There's a bit of me in the central character. The pathetic attempt to hide myself (when people ask about it) is just awful."
As for "Othello," in which Branagh was simply an actor-for-hire, he says the fact that the Shakespeare play was abridged and changed for the film doesn't bother him. "We attempted to try and render it simple, but not simplistic. It's a very hard thing to achieve, to make it naturalistic without being contemporary in a `stunt' kind of way. It needs simplicity and clarity so the audience can respond to things."
But Branagh's "Hamlet" will be doggedly faithful to Shakespeare's original. "When people ask me about why I am doing a full-length `Hamlet,' I have to say that I passionately believe it is an incredible story. And in its full-length version it reveals an incredible view of the human psyche.
"But it's a tough sell. Where there's a kind of ludicrousness in `Midwinter's Tale,' that passion - and the belief that at its best it is also genuinely life-enhancing - is also out there."
And the unique casting of Lemmon, Williams and Crystal has nothing to do with box-office considerations, Branagh says. "This is a color-blind, accent-blind - everything-blind production. We have Russians, Jamaicans, Italians, Americans, Frenchmen - just people I fancy doing it with.
"Despite his extraordinary talent and skill, Robin Williams isn't playing Osric (his `Hamlet' character) just so another 80-zillion people will come. I just happen to think Robin Williams will be great as Osric."
Branagh said he doesn't expect "Hamlet" to be the first choice for younger audience members over something like "Ace Ventura 2," but he does make a tongue-in-cheek promise to the audience it finds. "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to buy more popcorn . . . ."
And he sees the irony in having both "A Midwinter's Tale" and the upcoming "Hamlet" produced by the same American company (Castle Rock, with distribution through Columbia Pictures).
Though executives have been supportive on both projects, Branagh is sure they wonder about him. "I'm sure they feel they've got somebody who is slightly deranged working for them, but they've gone along with it."
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
For festival information, phone 328-FILM (328-3456); for ticket information, phone 322-1700. All theaters and auditoriums are in Park City, except the Tower, which is in Salt Lake City (876 E. 900 South), and the Sundance Screening Room, which is at the Sundance Resort in Provo Canyon.
FRIDAY, JAN. 19
Egyptian Theater: "Wings," 10 a.m.; "Celestial Clockwork," 1 p.m.; "The Suburbanators," 4 p.m.; "Flirt," 7 p.m.; "Walking and Talking," 10 p.m., "The Grave," Midnight.
Holiday Village Cinema I: "Predictions of Fire," 10 a.m.; "My Father's Garden," 1 p.m.; "The Darien Gap," 4 p.m.; "Shorts Program I" 7 p.m.; "Shorts Program II," 10 p.m.
Holiday Village Cinema II: "The White Balloon," 10:20 a.m.; "Female Perversions," 1:20 p.m.; "The Celluloid Closet," 4:20 p.m.; "God's Lonely Man," 7:20 p.m., "Freeway," 10:20 p.m.
Holiday Village Cinema III: "Belly Talkers," 10:40 a.m.; "Wild Horses," 1:40 p.m.; "Cutting Loose," 4:40 p.m.; "Follow Me Home," 7:40 p.m.; "War Stories," 10:40 p.m.
Prospector Square Theater: "Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going," 9:30 a.m.; "The Keeper," Noon; "When We Were Kings," 3 p.m.; "Angel Baby," 6 p.m.; "Late Bloomers,"9 p.m.
Park City Library Center: "Go Now," 9:30 a.m.; "Hype!,"12:30 p.m.; "Big Night," 3:30 p.m.; "Meet Ruth Stoops," 6:30 p.m.; "A Midwinter's Tale," 9:30 p.m.
Olympia Park Hotel Theater: "Frisk," 9:30 p.m.
Sundance: "Eden," 8 p.m.
Tower: "Bandwagon," 6 p.m.; "The Whole Wide World," 9 p.m.