Much Ado About Nothing

Fran Kranz, a longtime veteran of Joss Whedon projects, takes to the big screen in this Friday’s The Cabin in the Woods and is set to again team with Whedon (and Cabin co-star Amy Acker) for Much Ado About Nothing, a low-budget take on the William Shakespeare play that was filmed last year as a mystery project in just 12 days.

"[Whedon] shot that while he was on vacation," says Kranz. "I remember he said he was going to go to Italy with his wife and kids, then all of a sudden he started to shoot a movie, which is crazy... He does a lot of readings at his house, he’s a great host. He always has people over, but he likes to have something to do, something specific. Sometimes he’ll read plays. One night we all read ’A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream’. He called me one day and said he was thinking about doing ’Much Ado About Nothing’, but filming it this time. That struck me as doing something handheld, with a Flipcam or something. Not something big with grip trucks, all of this equipment and stuff. But that’s what it turned into."

The project also includes quite a few other faces familiar to Whedon fans such as Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg and Reed Diamond.

"He turned his home into a movie set," Kranz continues. "He had extras and all of that. We had no idea. But I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted us to go into it with a casual feel and to do Shakespeare like you’re not used to seeing. He didn’t want big production value or it to be over-rehearsed. I think he wanted it to be natural. It might be a bizarre benefit to it that we didn’t master the language. The other actors all came from different places so it was an eclectic group. It’s Shakespeare, the language is rich and dense... I think it could be this wonderful blessing that it feels intimate, alive and casual and fun. I hope that bleeds off the screen and will be refreshing for audiences. I haven’t seen it yet, but I trust Joss always and I think it’s going to be awesome."

Though Much Ado About Nothing is without a specific release date, The Cabin in the Woods (which Whedon co-wrote with director Drew Goddard) arrives in theatres this Friday, April 13th. Whedon will then be releasing Marvel’s the Avengers on May 4th. Check back for full interviews with the cast and crew of both films here and at ComingSoon.net’s ShockTillYouDrop.com, including more from Kranz right here.