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OTHELLO
STARRING Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, Irene Jacob. Directed by Oliver Parker.
RICHARD III
STARRING Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Downey Jr. Directed by Richard Loncraine.
THERE'S AN OLD -- and we hope apocryphal -- story about a studio executive who, after attending a screening of Romeo and Juliet, promptly called his secretary and said, ''Get me this Bill Shakespeare on the horn.''
Now, with star-laden productions of Richard III and Othello opening within a week of each other this December, the Bard is once again the hottest Tinseltown scribe this side of Joe Eszterhas. Which can only mean one thing: Secretaries all over town are frantically flipping through their Rolodexes. ''Forget Spielberg,'' says McKellen, executive producer, cowriter, and star of Richard III. ''Shakespeare's the man.''
Both Richard and Othello were shot on location in Europe: Richard in England, Othello in Italy. And both plays were modified, to put it mildly. In Richard's case, McKellen's adaptation -- or as he calls it, ''realization'' -- transports the story to England in the 1930s, with Richard portrayed not as a medieval king but as a 20th-century tyrant. ''The world it deals with is much closer to The Godfather than Henry V,'' says McKellen. Another revision was to turn the characters of Queen Elizabeth and Earl Rivers into Americans, allowing McKellen to cast Bening and Downey Jr. ''The Americans are very welcome from a box office, big-international-movie point of view,'' he says.
For Othello, first-time feature director Parker cut nearly 70 percent of the dialogue and reordered some scenes. ''Instead of it being a massive, four-hour psychological drama,'' says Parker, ''I've gone for a fast-moving, relentless, erotic thriller.'' That may explain why he cast the smoldering Fishburne, a Shakespearean newcomer, as the tormented Moorish general. Fishburne admits having trepidation about taking on a part made famous by Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, and James Earl Jones -- not to mention Ted Lange (Isaac from The Love Boat). ''My heart skipped a beat,'' he recalls. ''I was intimidated and frightened. I'm still getting over it.''
Of course, Fishburne probably didn't need to trot out any Strasberg techniques for many of the film's rather un-Elizabethan moments. ''We haven't any shower scenes, but we certainly get into the bedroom of Othello and Desdemona,'' says Parker. But Shakespeare would have done that. ''He was a theater owner. He was very interested in putting bums on seats.'' (Othello: Dec. 15; Richard III: Dec. 22)
Buzz: Love the concept; babe, have you gotten through to Bill's people yet?
12 MONKEYS
STARRING Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, Frank Gorshin, David Morse. Directed by Terry Gilliam.
THE TITLE REFERS to a riddle, and it's not the only one at the heart of 12 Monkeys. Is it a virus thriller? Cautionary tale? Romance? Sci-fi? ''Yes!'' enthuses Gilliam. ''All of those and more! Let's call it an enigma. That's what I like about it: It doesn't fit in any genre.'' Rest assured that it does have a plot. The year is 2035. Willis plays a prisoner who lives underground with the few humans who have survived a worldwide virus. To win his freedom, he travels into the past, where he kidnaps (and woos) a psychiatrist (Stowe) and tries to unlock the mystery of the world's demise. (Pitt pops up in a supporting role as a freaky animal rights activist.)
