Shakespeare’s Hollow Crown Plays Coming on DVD
Posted on August 14, 2013 at 8:00 am
Executive producer Sam Mendes (“American Beauty,” “Skyfall”) is presenting four stunning adaptations of some of William Shakespeare’s most revered historical plays. The all-star cast includes Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers), Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek franchises), Jeremy Irons (Margin Call), Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas, Skyfall), and more. The “Hollow Crown” series includes Richard II, Henry IV Parts One and Two, and Henry V. Filmed with both epic scope and intimate detail, the rise and fall of kings unfolds with Shakespeare’s glorious language magnificently performed. It will be available on iTunes, VOD, and DVD on August 27, 2013.
Why are they called “hollow crown” plays?
It comes from “Richard II” — “For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour’d thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin”