BERLIN — For his debut as a director, Ralph Fiennes has pulled the Shakespearean tragedy "Coriolanus" into the present-day world of 24-hour news coverage of riots and politics.
Fiennes takes the lead as a great but proud and flawed Roman general in the movie, which had its premiere Monday at the Berlin film festival.
He stars alongside Vanessa Redgrave, who plays his iron-willed mother, Volumnia and Gerard Butler, cast as Coriolanus' sworn enemy, Tullus Aufidius.
Fiennes said he had thought about making a film of "Coriolanus" — a tale of heroism, political manipulation, unrest and revenge — since appearing in the play on stage a decade ago. He gave some thought to setting the movie in ancient Rome or in the 19th century.
"(But) I kept on seeing images in the newspaper or television which seemed to come from this story," Fiennes told reporters ...