O (2002)

It’s not hard to see why director Tim Blake Nelson chose to update Shakespeare’s Othello. Not only is it one of the Bard’s most muscular, not to mention sexy, plays, but the decision was made during Hollywood’s Shakespeare-craze of 1998-2000. Now, after the film’s been hanging around for two whole years, the fad has passed and the idea no longer seems quite so clever. Not least because O must stand comparison to earlier filmed versions of Shakespeare’s play – excellent versions made by Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier. You may have heard of them.

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