celeb news Jessica Chastain & Al Pacino to star in Shakespeare adaptation Lear Rex

February 27

William Shakespeare is headed back to the big screen again. Bernard Rose (Immortal Beloved) is writing to direct Lear, Rex…, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Al Pacino will star as the title character, and Jessica Chastain will star as Goneril. Other cast to follow soon.

The film is produced by Barry Navidi, and will be his fifth collaboration with Pacino after The Merchant of Venice (2004) in which Pacino played Shylock, Wilde Salomé (2011), and Salomé (2013) and recently Modi (2024), which is directed by Johnny Depp.

Chastain starred in the stage play Salome alongside Pacino, and that led to her first film appearance in Wilde Salome directed by Pacino. She’s been thrice-Oscar nominated and won for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

In Lear Rex, an aging King divides his land between his three daughters to prevent future strife. But he rejects the young daughter who loves him and places his trust in her malevolent sisters, who strip him of his power and condemn him to a wretched wasteland of horror and insanity.

Al Pacino, Jessica Chastain Lear Rex movie Shakespeare Bernard Rose (deadline.com)

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