A Midsummer's Nightmare | |
---|---|
Based on | A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare |
Screenplay by | Anthony Jaswinski |
Directed by | Gary Fleder |
Starring | Paul Walter Hauser Eric Balfour |
Music by | Jim Dooley James S. Levine |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Jim O'Grady |
Cinematography | Trevor Forrest |
Editor | Scott Turner |
Production company | A+E Studios |
Original release | |
Release | July 31, 2017 |
A Midsummer's Nightmare is a 2017 psychological thriller film [1] directed by Gary Fleder. It is a modern adaptation of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. [2] [3]
Four young lovers go into the woods to pursue their romantic desires but find their fantasies and secrets being used against them.
The film was produced as a pilot for a planned hour-long anthology series [4] but the pilot was not picked up as a series. [5] Filming took place in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia, Canada from October 31 to November 18, 2016. Liz Gateley, Executive Vice President and Head of Programming for Lifetime, stated that the intent was to develop "content that redefines what it means to be a Lifetime show." [4] The production received some media attention for booking Courtney Love in a role. [6] [7] [8]
The pilot was originally scheduled to premiere on July 28, 2017 but was then moved to July 14 and then again to July 31, when it ultimately aired. [5]
Reviewer Duane of the website Shakespeare Geek gave the film a negative review, doubting the existence of "any Shakespeare of note" in it. [9]
Courtney Michelle Love is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989. Love has drawn public attention for her uninhibited live performances and confrontational lyrics, as well as her highly publicized personal life following her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In 2020, NME named her one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is considered one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
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Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar is a retired English actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller The Collector (1965), which earned her a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
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The Illinois Shakespeare Festival (ISF) is held in Bloomington, Illinois, United States at Ewing Theatre and in Normal, Illinois, United States at the Center for Performing Arts Theatre at Illinois State University. The Festival began in 1978 and celebrated its 45th season in 2023. The Festival has traditionally presented three plays. Although all three may be Shakespeare plays, the Festival has also included different types of theater, such as Restoration comedy, Commedia dell'arte, or works by contemporary playwrights.
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Jai Stephen Courtney is an Australian actor. He started his career with small roles in films and television series before being cast as Charlie in the action film Jack Reacher (2012). He has gone on to star in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), I, Frankenstein (2014), and The Exception (2016).
Courtney Love is an American musician and actress who began her professional career in film in 1986 with a supporting role in Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy (1986); she had prior studied film with experimental director George Kuchar at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984, and appeared in one of Kuchar's short films. After pursuing music and having a successful career as the frontwoman of alternative rock band Hole, Love also had intermittent roles in films, most notably receiving critical attention for her performance as Althea Flynt in Miloš Forman's 1996 biopic The People vs. Larry Flynt, which earned her a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actress, as well as awards from the Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles film critics associations. Love later appeared among an ensemble cast in 200 Cigarettes (1998), as well as in a leading role in Man on the Moon (1999) alongside Jim Carrey, for which she received critical recognition. She later appeared in several independent films and short subjects as well as the thriller Trapped (2002) alongside Charlize Theron and Kevin Bacon, and Julie Johnson (2001), for which she received an award for Best Actress at Los Angeles' gay and lesbian Outfest film festival.
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