SCREENING ROOM

摘要

If you're one of the few sentient creatures who missed last year's The Avengers, that's okay-no judgment here. But you also missed an oblique teaser for the screen version of Much Ado About Nothing from its writer-director, Joss Whedon, which opened in theaters June 7. When Chris Hemsworth-as-Thor provokes Robert Downey Jr.-as-Iron Man by saying, "You don't know who you're dealing with," the latter quips, "Shakespeare in the park? 'Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?'" To be sure, with its modern-dress take on the Bard's work (complete with smart-phones, no less), Whedon's Much Ado features little in the way of drapery. Yet that exchange is still instructive: maybe pop culture-watchers, including Whedon's legions of fans from projects such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Cabin in the Woods, didn't know with whom we were dealing when it came to Joss Whedon. But the signs have been there all along.