Julie Taymor Finds Her Tempest Cast

Director Julie Taymor (Across the Universe) has found an all-star cast for her upcoming adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Ben Wishaw, Felicity Jones and Geoffrey Rush have all signed to the film.

The play mixes romance with fraternal politics and the supernatural, and centers on Prospero, an exiled duke-turned-sorcerer. Taymor’s version will see Prospera as a woman, with Mirren in the lead role.

The film will center around Prospera, her daughter Miranda (Jones) and a shipwrecked crew full of Prospera’s enemies. The island’s other inhabitants include Hounsou as the deformed slave Caliban and Wishaw as the airy spirit Ariel.

On the ship are rising comedy star Brand, playing Trinculo, a jester; Irons as Alonso, the King of Naples; and Molina as the drunken butler Stephano. Rush will play Gonzalo, a royal adviser and old ally of Prospera’s.

The Miramax film is gearing up to start production in November in Hawaii.