The Merry Wives of Munnar

The overarching aim of The Merry Wives of Munnar (MWM) is to make a feature film, with mass market appeal, that will champion STFC research and contribute to the high profile 2016 Shakespeare celebrations, http://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/press/british-council-announces-global-celebration-shakespeare reaching STFC key audiences. The present application for a Small Award is to contribute to the projects' preproduction aims. These are to finalise the storyboard, conduct script consultations with science experts, cast actors, assign crew, initial set and wardrobe design, rehearsed read-through of screenplay, location reccee, troubleshooting and evaluating the progress. Aims also include steering the preproduction period smoothly forwards and into production and on into post-production and ultimately to use the mass media as well as the Shakespeare 400 http://shakespeare400.org/ celebrations to deliver MWM to an international audience for maximum impact. Film London's http://filmlondon.org.uk/shakespeare commitment to this project means the distribution and backing from the BFI and BBC are secure. Due to the BBCs involvement in Shakespeare 400 and the arrangements between the BBC and Film London it is likely BBC2 will screen the film, thus reaching a TV audience too. I'm making use of partnerships that developed through the 2012 Small Award for Shake Sphere. MWM is a continuation of Shake Sphere and collaborations forged in 2012/2013. For example, Royal Shakespeare Co (RSC) actor Ed Hughes and Professor Bob Newport both collaborated with Shake Sphere and are now working on MWM and the RSC would like to do more work with me. But I also aim to widen the network and forge new alliances between art and science thus expanding on the legacy. As this recent article in Nature http://blogs.nature.com/aviewfromthebridge/2015/04/23/much-ado-about-science/ illustrates, Shakespeare's plays are fertile territories for science enthusiasts. The MWM is a legacy of Shake Sphere and due to the hybridisation between literature, film and science the MWM will have an even more potent and eduring legacy. The ethical issues concerning the colonisation of asteroids are included in the MWM and Shakespearean consultant Dr Preedy considers the MWM a fascinating and thought provoking adaptation that cleverly gives new meaning to the play's original themes. One important aim of the MWM is that it will have a positive impact on its younger audience and after seeing the film more girls and women will feel inspired to continue with STEM subjects after age 16 and go on to have STEM careers. The STEM agenda and the need for diversity have been interwoven into the screenplay. For example, Anne Page is now Asian Anita Patel, age 21, she is using her grandfather's inheritance, not as a dowry, but to pay for her university degree, she enjoys physics and her ambition is to become a Nobel winning nanoscientist. William Page is now a ten year old Indian girl, Shana Oberoi who has a big personality and is extremely knowledgeable on astronomy. These young female characters are independently-minded and fully engaged with science and are inspirational to young audiences. Indeed, malaria consultant Professor Baker told me he shared the screenplay with his 11 year old daughter and she found it so funny and compelling she wants to play the part of Shana! The Merry Wives of Windsor is regularly taught in schools in Key Stage 3 & 4 (age 11 - 16). As original dialogue is interspersed and the narrative follows the same plot structure schools will be able to screen this new version. The two female leads, merry wives, Alice and Madhu, are both highly accomplished and competent women, one of them learning GPS yacht navigation (named Mare Rose) and the other establishing a software company that supplies the Square Kilometre Array. The MWM screenplay is highly informative on a broad spectrum of STFC research, while simultaneously being very funny and entertaining.

The Shake Sphere facebook page has been a great success, The Merry Wives of Munnar (MWM) facebook page will be even better. Cast and crew will judiciously post during filming. Once on release as part of the British Council and Shakespeare 400 celebrations the facebook page will continue to be used to post reviews and to promote the film.

I will write several pieces for Guardian science on the MWM, Guardian.co.uk is one of the world's most popular on-line media, it receives over 40M fresh hits per month.

Once the MWM is on general release the film will be promoted in the usual way with cast & crew giving interviews. Dr Sheila Kanani and Dr Marek Kukula both have cameo roles as members of the Dark Skies Discovery Network. They will both be able to give interviews following the release of the film where astronomy subjects ranging from citizen science to Rosetta, SKA & the newly discovered "supervoid" can be discussed, they will also be able to make comparisons between Elizabethan knowledge and today's cutting edge.

Due to the MWM's positive STEM inspired content of promoting females I have already contacted the National STEM Centre and I anticipate the STEM centre will promote the film. http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/

I will conduct screenplay readings with the Science and Technology Studies students at UCLhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/and with the MSc Science, Communication and Society students at Kent. http://www.kent.ac.uk/bio/study/postgraduate/master/sc/index.html how the science is woven into the screenplay will be teased apart and the technique discussed.

With Film London distributing the MWM http://filmlondon.org.uk/shakespeare and the British Council http://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/press/british-council-announces-global-celebration-shakespeare and the Shakespeare 400 consortium http://shakespeare400.org/ all providing film events and actively looking to programme the MWM this film will be distributed and will reach all STFC key audiences.

Government is backing "Shakespeare Lives" in 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/british-council-announces-shakespeare-lives and due to the high profile nature of many of these events audiences will include personnel from Industry and Government thus policy makers will view the MWM.

The Merry Wives of Munnar (MWM) is the only film with a focus on science and STEM, making this project vital and unique within the 2016 celebrations. Due to the high science content in Shakespeare many have argued that Francis Bacon is the real playwright. Because Government is backing the 2016 celebrations it is important that the relationship between Shakespeare and science is included in these high profile events. Because the MWM is the only film project to contemporise science the MWM will gain special attention.

Feature films are mass media art forms with long life spans and Shakespeare's pull is timeless with mass, international appeal, therefor the MWM will continue to promote and disseminate STFC science for many years to come.

From my research it appears that non-specialist audiences learn science well when they are laughing, the MWM is a very funny screenplay aimed at a U certificate. This family film has mass appeal and will transend age, race and national boundaries.