Lakeem Rose sets Much Ado About Nothing after a modern war

Four soldiers come home from a modern war still speaking Shakespeare's 400-year-old English. That is the bold bet behind British writer-director Lakeem Rose's first feature, a contemporary take on Much Ado About Nothing, Variety reported.

Rose, 29, is shifting the comedy to a world just after a present-day conflict. The story follows four returning soldiers who reunite at the house of a family friend, according to the same report.

The twist is in the sound. The dialogue keeps Shakespeare's Early Modern English, the language he wrote in, with subtitles in contemporary English running underneath. Rose is also building in sequences styled after silent cinema, the wordless black-and-white film era, inside the military setting.

The project is in development, the industry term for a film still being written, cast and financed before any shoot. It is being steered by Canadian producers Plato Fountidakis and Paul Rapovski, managing partners at Fast Motion Films, alongside Hong Kong-based producer and casting director Mike Leeder, Variety reported.

Leeder is producing through Red Packet Media. International sales and distribution, the business of selling a film's rights to buyers outside its home territory, is handled by Clever Creature.

The three companies — Fast Motion Films, Clever Creature and Red Packet Media — are backing the adaptation, FilmInk reported.

What makes this stand out is how literal the mix is. Old speech. New war. Silent-film passages in a story about soldiers who cannot stop talking.

The process itself is being filmed. A documentary series titled Reinventing Shakespeare is tracking the production's progress.

Next stop is the market. Rose and Fountidakis plan to take meetings on the project at the Toronto Film Festival market, where producers pitch upcoming films to financiers and distributors, Variety reported. No cast or start date has been announced.