20 movies you didn’t realize are based on Shakespeare plays

She’s the Man follows Amanda Bynes’ character, Viola, as she pretends to be her brother so she can play soccer at a different school after the girls’ program at her school is cut. The plot is based on the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, and there are loads of references to the original script, particularly in the names of characters (and tarantulas). 

10 Things I Hate About You is still one of the best rom-coms ever made, and it makes sense given its source material. The film is based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and it was so close to the original that Shakespeare actually received writing credits. 

Put Julia Stiles in a film based on a Shakespeare play and you’ve got yourself a hit. While O was not nearly as successful as 10 Things I Hate About You, it was also based on a play by Shakespeare, Othello, hence the film’s title. 

The Coen Brothers' film Scotland, PA , which features Maura Tierney and Christopher Walken, is based on "The Scottish Play," Macbeth. It’s got some fun references to its source material, including the main character’s name, Joe McBeth. 

If you’ve seen West Side Story, the original film or the Spielberg remake, you know that the story is based on one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, not one of his comedies. The story is based on Romeo and Juliet, though there are some marked plot differences. 

Not all Shakespeare works are adapted equally. The Tempest doesn’t get quite so many adaptations, but it did inspire the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet, a film Shakespeare probably wouldn’t have ever dreamed up on his own. 

Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, gets frequent adaptations. The 2022 film Rosaline starring Kaitlyn Dever was inspired by the classic Shakespearean tragedy. But because it’s a retelling of the story from Romeo’s ex-girlfriend’s point of view, the plot is a little different. 

Even DCOM writers were inspired by Shakespeare. The 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie Motocrossed, in which a teenage girl pretends to be her twin brother so she can compete in motocross, is also based on the play Twelfth Night. 

Disney is plenty familiar with using Shakespeare to inspire its content. The story of The Lion King is based on Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s most notable works. And who says Shakespeare is too sophisticated for children to understand?

Plenty of animated films have taken inspiration from Shakespeare, too. One of George Lucas’ works outside of Star Wars, Strange Magic was based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Okay, you probably did know that this film was based on a Shakespeare play. The pun is pretty obvious. But it’s worth noting since it’s animated. Gnomeo and Juliet was based on, you guessed it, Romeo and Juliet. 

The title of Deliver Us from Eva is clearly a play on words from the Lord’s Prayer, but the content is derived from a different notable piece of literature, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It’s a loose adaptation, but an adaptation nonetheless. 

Don’t let anyone shame you for loving John Tucker Must Die. It’s based on a Shakespeare work. The teen comedy with one of the most quintessentially ‘00s casts of all time was based on The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

Romeo and Juliet is akin to Cinderella in that, every now and then, a new adaptation of the story is made (though the Romeo and Juliet adaptations are a little harder to detect as they’re typically not titled as directly as Cinderella adaptations). Warm Bodies is another film based on the famed Shakespeare play. 

One of Nicolas Cage’s earliest films, Valley Girl, was based on Romeo and Juliet. Something tells us that Shakespeare would’ve loved to have met Cage. Imagine the work he could’ve written based on that man. 

It’s unlikely that we’ll ever stop getting new films based on Shakespeare's plays. The fairly recent rom-com, Anyone But You , starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney, was inspired by Much Ado About Nothing. 

We need more teen movies based on Shakespeare's plays, because almost all of the attempts have been successful. Get Over It , with Kirsten Dunst, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, and more, was loosely inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

See, another good teen comedy based on a Shakespeare play. Just One of the Guys was inspired by Twelfth Night. The play, in particular, makes for great teen comedies. 

Shakespeare himself didn’t write sci-fi as we know it today, but his work has inspired multiple sci-fi films. Ex Machina was based on The Tempest, Shakespeare’s play that more plainly makes for sci-fi adaptations than any of his others. 

Henry IV is a classic Shakespeare play. The man loved to write about real people. And there was so much to say about the monarch that the play was split into two parts, both of which inspired the film My Own Private Idaho.