The Tempest

MPA Rating: for some nudity, suggestive content and scary images.

Relevant Issues

Featuring	Russell Brand (Trinculo) Helen Mirren (Prospera) Alan Cumming (Sebastian) Alfred Molina (Stephano) Djimon Hounsou (Caliban) Chris Cooper (Antonio) Ben Whishaw (Ariel) David Strathairn (Alonso) Felicity Jones (Miranda) See all » Tom Conti (Gonzalo), Jahnel Curfman, Reeve Carney (Ferdinand), Kevin Cannon (Queen’s Councilor), Jude Akuwidike (Boatswain), Douglas J. Aguirre (King’s Guard), Bryan Webster (Guard)
Director	ulie Taymor — “Across the Universe,” “Frida,” “Titus”
Producer	Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Chartoff Productions, TalkStory Productions, Ron Bozman, Beaux Carson, Robert Chartoff, John C. Ching, Lynn Hendee, Rohit Khattar, Deborah Y. Lau, Jason K. Lau, Phyllis LaVoie, Greg Strasburg, Julia Taylor-Stanley, Julie Taymor
Distributor	Touchstone Pictures, a division of Walt Disney Studios

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “In Julie Taymor’s version of ‘The Tempest,’ the gender of Prospero has been switched to female (Prospera). Going back to the 16th or 17th century, women practicing the magical arts of alchemy were often convicted of witchcraft. In Taymor’s version, Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her four-year daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it’s a tabula rasa: no society, so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda. This leads to the power struggle and balance between Caliban and Prospera; a struggle not about brawn, but about intellect.

Shakespeare’s play mixes romance with fraternal politics and the supernatural. As revised for the screen, it centers 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; David Strathairn, as Alonso, the King of Naples; and Molina as the drunken butler Stephano. Tom Conti plays Gonzalo, a royal adviser and old ally of Prospera’s.”