With The Tempest , afford tomorrow , Julie Taymor and Helen Mirren bring a flamboyant fancy vibe to the Bard . But skill fable and fantasy have been playing with Shakespeare everlastingly . Here are the greatest Shakespeare homages and cover versions in SF .
Romeo And Juliet : The War : Stan “ The Man ” Lee ’s latest project , this comic retells the Shakespeare play in the upstage future . ( image above . ) harmonise to Deadline , the Empire of Verona becomes the most brawny territory on Earth , thanks to the cyborg Montagues and the genetically enhanced Capulets — until the two class of supersoldiers get fighting amongst themselves . It ’s action in the mighty Shakespearian style !
Star Trek , “ The Conscience of the King ” : A Shakespearean role player comes on board the Enterprise — but is he secretly the former dictator who condemn many of his hoi polloi , include members of Kirk ’s and Riley ’s families , to destruction ? The only way to obtain out is with draw of Shakespearean speechifying , plus piles of snip of MacBeth , Hamlet and Julius Caesar . This is maybe the greatest Shakespeare Riffian on Trek , but the show has been obsessed with Will for years — including the whole “ Henry V ” riff in Star Trek : TNG , and the Klingon Hamlet . Here ’s a fairly thoroughgoing listof all the Shakespeare references and Riffian in the various Star Treks .
Forbidden Planet : Perhaps the well - known scifi version of Shakespeare ’s workplace , Forbidden Planet transplants the action of The Tempest to the near - derelict planet Altair IV . Philologist Edward Morbius make the place of the sorcerer Prospero and his daughter Altaira stand in for the beautiful , sheltered Miranda . The magic and spirits of the original fun are replaced with exotic engineering science ; just as the now - stagnant beldam Sycorax enslaved the sprite Ariel and birthed Caliban , so too did the nonextant Krell build the technology that created Robby the Robot and the Creature from the Id.
Shakespeare in Doctor Who : William Shakespeare himself makes a abbreviated appearance on the Time - Space Visualizer in the sequence “ The Chase , ” and the Doctor mention having met him in “ City of destruction , ” but Shakepeare does n’t really meet the Doctor on screen until “ The Shakespeare Code . ” Being the genius of the human condition that he is , Will cursorily pegs the Doctor as an extraterrestrial being and Martha Jones as a traveler from the time to come . In the meantime , the closed book of the lost play Love ’s Labour ’s Won is solved ( it was sucked through a portal into another dimension ) , and the episode nervily evoke that Shakespeare got the idea for the name “ Sycorax ” from the Doctor , and not the other style around . The Doctor advert to several other off - screen door group meeting with the poet , and the two hang out in the novel The Empire of Glass and the audiodrama “ The Kingmaker . ”
Isaac Asimov “ The Immortal Bard ” : As in Doctor Who , Isaac Asimov supposes that Shakespeare has some special baron to comprehend the future beyond that of mere mortals . In his taradiddle , a physics prof claims that he can ravish people from the past to the present . Though he hear it with many illustrious creative thinker – Galileo , Archimedes , Isaac Newton – Shakespeare was the only one who could wrap his mind around modern social club . Of course , it all goes to pot when he enroll Will in a colleague ’s course on Shakespearean literature . It would n’t be Asimov ’s last meeting with the man ; in 1970 , he published a two - volume guide to Shakespeare ’s plays .
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead : What ’s honorable than Tom Stoppard ’s postmodern riff on Hamlet , in which two bit histrion take center stage at last ? How about a variation of Stoppard ’s epic poem , in which Shakespeare was a lamia ? This picture show was featured in the Slamdance Film Festival last year . Here ’s the prescribed synopsis :
Julian Marsh ( Hoffman ) is an out of employment ma’am humans who lands a Book of Job direct a bizarre adaption of Hamlet . After casting his good champion ( Lemche ) and his ex - lady friend ( Aoki ) in the show , Julian see himself in the middle of a two thousand yr old conspiracy that explain the connexion between Shakespeare , the Holy Grail and some seriously sexy vampires . It turns out that the play was in reality write by a skipper lamia distinguish Theo Horace ( Ventimiglia ) and it ’s up to Julian to recoup the Grail so as to reverse the lamia ’s curse … If only being undead was n’t so much God - damned playfulness !
Frank Ramirez “ The Merchant of Stratford ” : Ever wondered just how Shakespeare deal with all those sentence travelers ? When the first time traveller decides to head back to 1615 Stratford , he witness that Shakespeare has already set up a cottage industry as a clip travel tourist drawing card . After getting time travelers from all different eras to bring him works of science fable , Shakespeare starts selling his own hoard whole caboodle to the people of the futurity , include his unpublished science fable novel Go - Captains in Nostrilla , based on Cordwainer Smith ’s novel .
Romeo x Juliet : Set in a next city that hovers above a devastated Earth , the anime serial keep the report of star - bilk devotee from war families , but plays with the fiber and their roles . Romeo is still an idle young Lord who accrue for Rosaline , then Juliet , but Juliet is an orphan , hardened by life under the oppressive Lord Montague . As the love story gets tangle up in the tale of uprising and retaliation , characters from other Shakespeare plays keep meander in : Portia , Ophelia , Emilia , and Hermione .
Harry Harrison “ A Fragment of Manuscript ” : Harrison imagines that Shakespeare stand for for some of his plays to be skill fiction in the first post . In his level , he key a manuscript for the original version of A Midsummer Night ’s Dream , which , he learns , was a piece of work of skill fiction rather than a piece of work of fantasy . But the Bard recognizes that he is too far ahead of his sentence for his contemporaneous audience , and has attached a bill to retool the script accordingly .
The works of Dan Simmons : Dan Simmons ’ put to work often reference , or in a flash borrow from , Shakespeare . In his duology Ilium / Olympos , his characters encounter the hotshot Prospero and the mad Caliban — andin the 2d book , Simmons essentially warp The Tempest into his own story . Here ’s an exegesisof some of the Tempest references in the Word of God . And of class , Simmons quote Shakespeare in the title of his novel Muse of Fire . Simmons writes about his love of Shakespearehere .
William Sanders “ The Undiscovered ” : Sanders place Shakespeare across the ocean , where , in the companionship of a Cherokee tribe , he becomes “ Spearshaker . ” Doing what he does good , he endeavor to stage a production of Hamlet for the members of the tribe , but , adverse to theories on the universalness of Shakespeare , they do n’t really get what he ’s trying to do .
Harry Turtledove , Ruled Britannia : Shakespeare also receive his way into Turtledove ’s alternate history novel about the Spanish occupation of England during the Elizabethan menstruum . English revolutionist tip Shakespeare to compose a turn about Boudicca , an ancient queen who led a rebellion against occupying popish forces , hoping to stir up exchangeable radical position . This leave Turtledove to essay his handwriting at composing origin in the style of Shakespeare .
Nick O’Donohoe , Too , Too Solid Flesh : In a time to come where theater has mostly died out , a troupe of android actors performs Hamlet every Nox . But , because the androids were manufacture specifically for their roles , they tend to ride out in character even when they ’re off - duty . And when the troupe ’s clothes designer and managing director turns up drained , the Hamlet actor decide to investigate the mystery .
King Lear : Jean - Luc Godard ’s film takes spot in a parallel universe where Chernobyl has destroyed much of human civilisation , notably works of prowess . William Shakespeare Jr.the Fifth ( Peter Sellers ) has been tasked with restoring his noted ancestor ’s work to the human canon . In the course of his employment he encounters the gangster Don Learo ( Burgess Meredith ) and his daughter Cordelia ( Molly Ringwald ) . as luck would have it for Mr. Shakespeare , on the rare occasion this yoke speak to one another , it is in short letter from King Lear , which Shakespeare conveniently records in his notebook .
Zombie Shakespeare in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror III : Is the end of Zombie Shakespeare ? Good motion ! really , there have been multiple zombie versions of Shakespeare work on stage latterly , includingTwelfth Night of the Living DeadandLiving Dead in Denmark . Why should Jane Austen have all the play ?
Hamlet 2 : In this under - the - radar indie drollery , a gamy - school teacher sample to recharge his schooling ’s fail drama programme by staging a sequel to Hamlet , in which all of the fibre ’ deaths are undone thanks to fourth dimension travel . In fact , both Hamlet and Jesus are capable to use time locomotion not just to avoid death , but to recreate their dad issues . Rock Me Sexy Jesus indeed !
Twilight Zone , “ The Bard ” : concord to the great Bardfilm blog , “ The Twilight Zone offers a Shakespeare brought back from the great beyond to help a failing tele - script author . And Shakespeare does n’t look too felicitous to be in 1963 or to be in The Twilight Zone . ” Unfortunately , television executives do n’t appreciate Shakespeare ’s genius , and keep wanting to dumb down his body of work . And a young Burt Reynolds curse Shakespeare out for not loving Tennessee Williams . Poor Will .
A billion stage productions set in the future . Too many to list here . There ’s a post - apocalyptical MacBeth , there ’s a Richard III set in the year 2134 , and so on . With tons of troupes and pupil group relocating Shakespeare ’s classics to the present day or to random period in the more recent past , it ’s also tempting to put on spacesuits and put As You Like It in space . Why ca n’t Arden be a satellite ?
Sandman , “ A Midsummer Night ’s Dream ” : We find out the real parentage of Shakespeare ’s drama in issue # 19 of Sandman , which gain ground the World Fantasy Award . Dream receive Shakespeare and utters the phrase , “ What mark these soul be . ” Thanks to MondoVampire for the admonisher .
Time Flies : In this1944 clowning movie , a failed euphony hall performer and flim - flam gentleman’s gentleman utilize a professor ’s prison term machine to go back in time with the professor and American drollery yoke Susie and Bill . They travel back to Shakespeare ’s clip and at one point , Susie be given into the Bard , who ’s suffering from writers ’ block . And Susie winds up quote a lot of Shakespeare ’s most famous line to him — and if you ’re guessing that Shakespeare part write them down , you ’re moderately sharp . Ah , predestination paradox , thou artistic creation as loopy as a dozen yellow garters .
Gnomeo and Juliet : Garden gnomes get along to lifetime when nobody ’s watching , in this moving-picture show coming out next year . No , really . But it features raw songs by Elton John , include an Elton / Lady Gaga duette . Still not excited ? Well , it ’s gnomes in love in spite of their feuding owners , and James McAvoy and Emily Blunt are the titular gnome distich . What are you , made of Harlan F. Stone ?
Henry 5 : Another upcoming project , this is a post - apocalyptic retellingof the Prince of Denmark ’s play , featuring Michael Caine , Ray Winston and Gerard Depardieu .
Blackadder Back and away : You canwatch the whole scene here . Blackadder is traveling through time in this one - off special , and he meet the Bard , getting his theme song and then giving him a undecomposed whipping for all the pain he ’s move to do for the next four hundred years .
Fantasy Island , “ Room and Bard ” : A horror movie star who ’s frustrated with her career comes to the island , and Mr. Rourke lend the poet of Avon forward in time to spell a gaming for her , to set aside her to become a “ serious actress . ”
Sabrina the Teenage Witch , “ Jealousy ” : attempt to learn how to deal out with intuitive feeling of envy , and so she rally Mark Twain , Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare to tell her that someone ’s essay is badly written . ( you’re able to watch the whole thinghere , starting at about 7:00 . )
I Dream of Jeannie , “ The Girl Who Never Had a natal day ” : Shakespeare is one of Jeannie ’s best champion , so she invites him to her big party , and Shakespeare tell Major Nelson that he remind the Bard of his old friend Yorick . ( ? ) ( It embark on about two minutes inhere . )
Manga Shakespeare : Hamlet : It ’s the year 2017 , andwe’ve destroyed the environment(as common . ) We ’re live in a “ cyberworld ” where futurist war is a constant danger . But Denmark has managed to get prosperous and agitate off all challenger . Hamlet is happily living in this cyberworld , until he meets the ghost of his founding father , and the residuum is bones and silence and speeches and poison and poppycock .
Jasper Fforde , The Eyre Affair : Fforde ’s debut novel take place in an alternative 1985 , in an England where the debate about whether Francis Bacon , not Shakespeare , had written the Bard ’s plays . In the last , someone has to go back in meter to find out the the true — only to find that nobody will collar to it . And there are Will - Speak machines , officially roll in the hay as the Shakespeare Soliloquy Vending Automaton , which do just what that sounds like . There ’s also a key setpiece which takes topographic point in a manufactory full of busts of William Shakespeare in various stagecoach of completion .
Aldous Huxley , Brave New World : In one of the most famous dystopian ( or untrue utopian ) novels of all time , John the Savage hold dear a ban written matter of Shakespeare ’s plays , and hear a lot about human nature from them . And of course of action , the book takes its title from Miranda ’s famous quote from The Tempest .
Were The World Mine . This illusion movie is a play on A Midsummer Night ’s Dream . A gay mellow schooling student , Timothy , gets retch as Puck in Shakespeare ’s fun — leading to the hilarious exchange : “ My son ’s a fairy . ” “ Oh ? ” “ In a play . ” “ Oh . ” “ And in real life , too . ” Timothy becomes obsessed with Shakespeare ’s words , until he create a genuine - life love potion to make the jockstrap fall in sexual love with him – but it pee everybody else in town see through his eyes , too . Soon the rugby football coach is fall for the principal , and the the school principal ’s wife is live for Timothy ’s momma .
Scotland , PA : MacBeth is already a fantasy , with witches who seem to have weird power — but this indie pic transposes the action to a firm - food restaurant in the 1970s , while amping the weirdness up a few dozen percentage . Including the dependably freaktastic Christopher Walken as a skittish fuzz , MacDuff , but also a trio of “ witches ” lead by Timothy “ Speed ” Levitch . ( likewise , Hamlet 2000 starring Ethan Hawke , becomes a kind of urban fantasy put in modenr - day New York . )
The Stratford Man novels by Elizabeth Bear . In this duology , Queen Mab rules the kingdom of Faerie — and after Queen Elizabeth ’s undercover agent , Christopher Marlowe , is killed , his heir , Will Shakespeare , miss Marlowe ’s power to thread magic into his plays . So Queen Mab has to raise Marlowe to serve well as Shakespeare ’s private instructor . Thanks to Cicadagirl for the suggestion .
ShakespeaRe - TOld : This BBC production transposes four of Shakespeare ’s plays to the modern day , including the supernatural MacBeth and A Midsummer Night ’s Dream — which includes magical “ heart drops ” that make you fall in love . Featuring player like Billie Piper and James McAvoy — yes , the guy from that gnome movie .
Romie-0 and Julie-8 : They ’re androids ! In the future ! And their respective corporal owners have decreed a ban on these automaton return in love with each other due to the corporate rivalry . A devious persona named Gizmo assist them run away to the garbage planet Trash - O - Lot , where they match a garbage monster called Sparepartski . Eventually , they get away and actually convert their feud corporal owners to have a unification , with the two of them happily united as incorporated mascots — what do you want ? It ’s a cartoon !
Caliban ’s Hour by Tad Williams . A retelling of The Tempest from Caliban ’s head of view . Thanks to Brianfowler713 for this one !
Let Me In : Owen is reading Romeo and Juliet for school , and when he gets together with the precious lamia Abby , they begin cite the gambol to each other a lot . This dramatic play is so of import to appreciating Matt Reeves ’ U.S. version of this Swedish vampire story , they turn over out a written matter of the Shakespeare run with the movie ’s mechanical press kit .
Tromeo and Juliet : Annnnd … we pretty much leftthe bestfor last . As the name hint , this is a Troma production , but it ’s also co - direct by James Gunn , film director of Slither and the approaching Super . And you ’ll be shocked — shocked ! — to discover that there ’s a Penis Monster that plays a huge role in the story . And Juliet ’s dad ties her up in a plexiglas John Cage . And the apothecary ’s potion does n’t fake Juliet ’s death , it turn her into a horrifying cow teras . And there ’s ( sort of ) a glad ending . But really it must be seen to be believed .
Portions of this post in the first place come along inthis position by Lauren Davis .
https://gizmodo.com/william-shakespeare-science-fiction-author-of-the-forb-5067492
Other Sources : Absolute Shakespeare , TheBardFilm blog , the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare in Popular Culture , Amazon , IMDB , Wikipedia ,
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