Overture Films is developing a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to be directed by "Twilight's" Catherine Hardwicke and to star Emile Hirsch.

 

The script is being written by Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia") and will be produced by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who worked with Hirsch on "Milk."

 

The classic tale of a young man trying to decide whether to take revenge on his father's killer (his own uncle) will take place in contemporary America.

Jinks and Cohen said the project was the brainchild of Hirsch.

 

"Hamlet was in college when the story takes place, yet there hasn't been a movie version with an appropriately aged actor playing the role," Jinks and Cohen said in a statement. "Our goal is to present the story as a suspense thriller. We want to make it exciting and accessible for an audience today."

 

Hardwicke, who worked with Hirsch on "Lords of Dogtown," said she was "intrigued" by the project when the young actor suggested it. She said the new version will be filled with "violent, intense, and romantic scenes" that happen off-stage in the play but will be shown in "vivid detail" in the film.

 

"We read the play aloud and when I heard Emile speaking Shakespeare's amazing words, I was flooded with images," said Hardwicke, who directed 2008’s hit vampire saga adaptation "Twilight." 

 

Overture hopes to have a script finished in the coming months and will start principal photography quickly thereafter.