Earlier this year, after two decades of being nearly impossible to watch, the theatrical cut of Miloš Forman‘s Amadeus was rereleased, restoring the classic to what many contend is its finest form. The revision cuts some R-rated elements and shaves the runtime down by nearly 20 minutes.
The reissue righted a cinematic wrong mere months before a new miniseries posits, “OK, but what if Amadeus was even longer?”
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Hailing from British broadcaster Sky and creator Joe Barton (Black Doves, Giri/Haji), the new Amadeus adapted Peter Shaffer‘s stage play — just like the Forman film — and stars The White Lotus Season 2’s Will Sharpe as Mozart and Emmy nominee Paul Bettany taking over the part of Salieri from The White Lotus Season 2’s F. Murray Abraham.
The first trailer for the miniseries dropped yesterday, confusing some commenters in the process.
At the time of publication, the top comment under the YouTube version of the trailer correctly calls out the irony of Sky’s slogan “Believe in original stories.” The second most-liked comment asks, “Why on Earth would you make this?”
Now, it would be internet malpractice to discuss backlash to the new Amadeus adaptation without taking Sharpe’s race into consideration. The actor, who previously worked with Barton on Giri/Haji, is half-Japanese, which is about objectionable as Bettany playing an android in WandaVision when he’s clearly an organic human being. But a combination of racism and the widespread death of media literacy means that any naysaying for a project with race-swapping has to be taking with a pinch of salt.
With that out of the way, why on Earth would you make this?
Barton is an accomplished television creator, for sure. And he’s found two strong actors for his leads. But one has to wonder how the TV version of Amadeus ends up being anything other than another example of “limited series that should’ve been a movie” when the movie already exists and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture.
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