Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is at work on a screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, according to Deadline.com. Whedon took to his Twitter account to announce he recently wrapped the low-budget film’s secretive two-week shoot in Santa Monica.

The movie is a contemporary version of the Shakespeare classic, which tells the story a young couple scheming to set up their perpetually single friends, and was filmed in black and white. The cast features Amy Acker as Beatrice, Alexis Denisof as Benedick, Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, Clark Gregg as Leonato, Fran Kranz as Claudio and Reed Diamond as Don Pedro.

“The text is to me a deconstruction of the idea of love, which is ironic, since the entire production is a love letter, to the text, to the cast, even to the house it’s shot in,” Whedon said of the project. “[The cast was] all dedicated to the idea that this story bears retelling, that this dialogue is as fresh and intoxicating as any being written, and that the joy of working on a passion project surrounded by dear friends, admired colleagues and an atmosphere of unabashed rapture far outweighs their hilariously miniature paychecks.”

Much Ado About Nothing has been adapted for the screen several times including a 1993 film starring Kenneth Branagh (who also directed), Kate Beckinsale, Imelda Staunton, Emma Thompson and Keanu Reeves. The play appeared on Broadway most recently in a 1985 production that earned Derek Jacobi a Tony Award for Best Actor.

No release date has been announced, but Whedon expects the movie to hit the film festival circuit because “it is fancy,” he quipped.

Credit: broadway.com