Othello Broadway director talked with Denzel Washington about doing a film adaptation

The newest Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello just became the highest-grossing Broadway play ever. The play’s new incarnation seems tailor-made for the big screen and even has film stars Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal going toe-to-toe as frenemies Othello and Iago. Washington recently talked about where he’s taking his career when promoting Gladiator II last year, which included a surprise announcement about Black Panther 3. Washington said, “I played Othello at 22, I’m now going to play it at 70. After that, I’m playing Hannibal. After that, I’ve been talking with Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther.“

While it seems as if he’s filling his schedule up for the next few years, The Hollywood Reporter has spoken with Othello‘s director, Kenny Leon, as he reveals that he and Denzel talked about possibly adapting this new interpretation of the play as a feature film. Leon worked with Denzel on the plays A Raisin in the Sun, Fences and now Othello, and he says that there have “absolutely” been discussions with Denzel about a big screen adaptation and he hopes that Gyllenhaal would return for the film as well,  “I would hope so, absolutely, that’s what I would hope would happen.”

The new vision of the play sets the story in “The Near Future” and sees Gyllenhaal’s Iago secretly manipulate Denzel’s title character into thinking his wife, Desdemona (portrayed by Molly Osborne), is having an affair, which leads to Shakespeare’s signature tragedy. “It’s important for today because, for 100s of years, we’re still dealing with ourselves. Humanity is still struggling with itself,” Leon said about the show’s relevance today. He added, “This play is about pure love but what happens to pure love when there’s rumors and lies and jealousy. And all that’s timely for every generation.”

Leon also admits that he doesn’t know what he would do with Othello as a film, because it’s “two different art forms.” However, despite not having a vision for the cinematic adaptation, he feels the story’s still “got to tell the same truth.” So, for now, Leon is just concerned with the play as he explains, “we’re trying to get this up first.”

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