![Hamlet movie starring Ian McKellen to get UK cinema release [Updated]](https://www.westendtheatre.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Hamlet-movie-starring-Ian-McKellen.jpg "Hamlet movie starring Ian McKellen to get UK cinema release [Updated]")
Kaleidoscope Film Distribution has secured the international rights to a new film adaptation of Hamlet starring Ian McKellen.
Directed by Sean Mathias (Frank and Percy, Bent), the adaptation was produced by the late Bill Kenwright’s BK Studios, who recently produced McKellen in new film The Critic.
Producer Bill Kenwright sadly died in October 2023, aged 78.
The movie is to get a one-night-only UK cinema release on 27 February 2023. The screening will include an exclusive recorded Q&A with Ian McKellen and director, Sean Mathias.
McKellen reprises his lead role as Hamlet, and co-stars with the stage cast of the 2021 Theatre Royal Windsor production of play, including Frances Barber (The Unfriend, King Lear, The Seagull), Jonathan Hyde (King Lear, Titanic, Crimson Peak), Jenny Seagrove (Local Hero, Woman of Substance), Steven Berkoff (Vikings, A Clockwork Orange) and BAFTA-winner Francesca Annis (Jane Eyre, Wives and Daughters).
The movie is shot at the Theatre Royal Windsor, owned by Bill Kenwright Productions, and utilises nearly every room of the theatre to transform it into Elsinore Castle, from basement dungeon to roof-top battlements.
The movie is executive produced by David Gilbery (The Lost Daughter) and Naomi George (My Pure Land).
Kaleidoscope CEO Spencer Pollard said in a statement in October 2023: “We are very honoured and proud to bring to UK screens and international buyers a film with this prestige. A moving re-telling of one of Shakespeare’s most important pieces of work, we feel there will be many great homes for the film across the globe and look forward to sharing it with buyers in LA next week.”
BK Studios CEO David Gilbery said: “We’re incredibly excited for audiences to experience Sean Mathias’ unique and contemporary film adaptation of Shakespeare’s magnificent tragedy. Ian McKellen reprises his famous title role, alongside a superb ensemble of British stars from the stage and screen. The beauty of this adaptation is that at its core, it’s a real fast-paced classic revenge thriller.”
Ian McKellen is currently starring alongside Roger Allam in Ben Weatherill’s new play Frank and Percy at The Other Palace in London.
In April 2023 McKellen will star as Shakespeare’s Falstaff in Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre, which is a new adaptation of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, by award-winning writer and director Robert Icke.
UPDATES: This post was first published on 31 October 2023, and updated on 13 December 2023 with the date of the UK cinema release.
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