All the world’s a stage — and the perfect inspiration for a romantic comedy plot line! Many romantic movies that focus on romance have been inspired by William Shakespeare.
10 Things I Hate About Yourself, the 1999 cult movie that starred the likes Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger, was initially inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
The movie starred sisters Kat Stratford and Bianca Stratford, played by Stiles. Larisa OleynikThey were both in high school romances. Cameron James (also known as Cameron) was allowed to date Bianca, but she was not allowed to do so until her older sister.Joseph Gordon-Levitt) concocted a scheme to be able to ask out Bianca: Get resident bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to woo Kat.
The movie’s plot is similar to the 16th century play, in which Lucentio is unable to marry his love, Bianca, until her “shrewish” older sister, Katherina, marries first. Lucentio and Petruccio are joined by the eccentric Petruccio to charm Katherina into becoming a loyal wife.
“We were recruiting so many of our friends to find fairytales, or fables, and one night a friend was like, ‘You guys should do Taming the Shrew, that would be great,’” screenwriter Kirsten SmithRefinery29 was notified by her cowriter in June 2019 about her writing process. Karen McCullah. “He suggested switching the genders, but after considering it, we decided it would be better [in its original form.]It took two months to find the perfect thing. [that] would lend itself well to high school.”
She continued: “We sought out to find this perfect teen idea, and once we landed on Taming the ShrewWe traveled to Mexico, where Karen owned a timeshare. We spent a week on the beach drafting the script. We then went back to our respective states to finish the script. It was before internet. [was a big thing]We were able to send each other pages and fax each other scenes, so it was almost like we were mailing each other letters. It was very low tech!”
10 Things I Hate About Yourself was just the tipping point for romantic comedies based on Shakespeare’s acclaimed plays. Amanda Bynes Channing Tatum notably starred in 2006’s She’s the ManThe inspiration for this project was from Twelfth Night. In the film, Bynes’ Viola schemed to take her twin brother Sebastian’s (James KirkAfter her own team is cut, she takes a place at a boarding school to join their soccer squad. She quickly falls in love with Duke (played well by Tatum), her roommate. Olivia, her popular classmate, is also attracted to her.Laura Ramsey).
The OG play followed a similar story when Viola — separated from her twin Sebastian — posed as a boy while working for her crush, Duke. However, Duke is in love with Countess Olivia and enlists Viola to court her on his behalf despite Olivia falling for Viola’s Sebastian.
“I totally fought for Channing [to get cast in] that movie because he wasn’t famous yet,” the Amanda Show alum told Paper magazine in November 2018, calling the movie an “interesting” experience as a whole. “He’d just done a Mountain Dew commercial and I was like, ‘This guy’s a star — every girl will love him!’ But [the producers] were like, ‘He’s so much older than all of you!’ And I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter! Trust me!’”
Scroll down to see more romantic comedies that were inspired by Shakespeare.
