A Midsummer's Nightmare | |
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Genre | Psychological thriller |
Based on | A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare |
Written by | Anthony Jaswinski |
Directed by | Gary Fleder |
Starring |
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Music by | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producer | Jim O'Grady |
Cinematography | Trevor Forrest |
Editors |
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Production company | A+E Studios |
Original release | |
Network | Lifetime |
Release | July 31, 2017 |
A Midsummer's Nightmare is a 2017 American psychological thriller television film [1] directed by Gary Fleder and written by Anthony Jaswinski. It is a modern adaptation of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. [2] [3] It aired on Lifetime on July 31, 2017.
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 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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A Midsummer Night's Rave is a 2002 American film adapted from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream released on November 1, 2002. The film stars Corey Pearson, Lauren German, Andrew Keegan, Chad Lindberg, and Sunny Mabrey; and was directed by Gil Cates Jr. It is set at a rave, rather than the forest where most of the original is set. The film received little attention from professional movie critics, but is considered a success with teen audiences, and has been used as an exemplar for a category of movies in more academic publications.
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and charity.
Janet Ruth Montgomery is an English film and TV actress. She first gained attention for her role as Ames in the second season of the television series Human Target (2010–11), and also for her appearance in the 2009 straight-to-DVD film The Hills Run Red. She played the lead character in the television drama Made in Jersey (2012), cancelled after eight episodes. From 2014 to 2017, she starred as the lead character, Mary Sibley, in the series Salem. From 2018 to 2023, Montgomery played the role of Lauren Bloom on the medical drama television series New Amsterdam.
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Jai Stephen Courtney is an Australian actor. Born and raised in Sydney, Courtney started his career as teenager with small roles and film and television, and studied acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. After early supporting roles in Hollywood projects, he gained recognition for playing Dauntless leader Eric Coulter in The Divergent Series (2014–2015), Kyle Reese in Terminator Genisys (2015), and supervillain Captain Boomerang in the DC Extended Universe films Suicide Squad (2016), The Suicide Squad (2021), and The Flash (2023). He received praise for his performance as a corrupt debt collector and the main antagonist in the independent film Buffaloed (2019).
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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