Ethan Hawke Will Direct CAMINO REAL, Based on Tennessee Williams' Play

Variety reports that Ethan Hawke will direct a film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real," which is considered the playwright's most experimental work.

"I've been obsessed with the piece for years," Hawke said. "I kept turning it over and over again in my mind. It's part rock opera, part 'Waiting for Godot.' What I think Tennessee was trying to do, cinema has caught up to and can do better."

"It's not dissimilar to what Baz Luhrmann was aspiring to on 'Moulin Rouge,'" he adds. "It's just more spiritual."

"Camino Real" is surreal, especially in comparison to Williams' other works. His plays are normally placed into a "southern Gothic" genre - "A Streetcar Name Desire," "The Glass Menagerie," and "Sweet Bird of Youth" are some of his best-known offerings.

The play follows a young American named Kilroy as he encounters a broad range of colorful characters, some of whom, such as Don Quixote, Esmeralda and Casanova, are drawn from history, literature, and myth. It flopped on Broadway when it premiered in 1953.

Williams was Hawke's great-uncle.

Ethan Hawke is a Tony and four-time Academy Award nominated actor and writer whose diverse career as a novelist, actor, director, and screenwriter spans more than three decades.

Read the original story on Variety.