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Needless to say, we are completely thrilled at the announcement that we are to film the RSC’s 2012 production of Julius Caesar for the BBC. The full text of this morning’s press release is here, but here’s the heart of it:

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s greatest political thrillers and, as directed by the RSC’s Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran, the play finds dark contemporary echoes in modern Africa. The cast will include Adjoa Andoh, Ray Fearon, Paterson Joseph, Jeffery Kissoon and Joseph Mydell.

This will be the third Shakespeare film for television that we will have made with Greg Doran, after Macbeth (2001) and Hamlet (2010), and we could not be more delighted to be collaborating with him once again.

Greg’s vision of the play is a strongly contemporary one – so don’t expect togas – and also don’t expect a film like any of the other Shakespeares that we’ve made to date. We’ll explore the production much more on this blog as it develops over the coming months, but we are aiming for a very different look and feel from our collaborations to date. The one thing we can promise is that the screen version will be dynamic and distinct – and not in any sense a production that simply sets out to ‘capture’ the stage show.

Also entirely different this time round is the schedule on which the film will be made. Greg’s production opens in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford on 28 May and runs there until 7 July 2012 (you can book tickets here). After this, as has just been announced, it transfers (along with Iqbal Khan’s production of Much Ado About Nothing) to the Noel Coward Theatre in London from August to October. So we are going to make the film as the show comes together in Stratford – which is the first time we have attempted this. The film will be shown on the BBC during the summer – and I think this is the first time ever that a stage show and a complementary film version will be shown side by side.

All of which is hugely exciting – and not a little intimidating.