Page "King Lear" Paragraph 72

The play was again adapted to the world of gangsters in Don Boyd's 2001 My Kingdom, a version which differs from all others in commencing with the Lear character, Sandeman, played by Richard Harris, in a loving relationship with his wife.

But her violent death marks the start of an increasingly bleak and violent chain of events ( influenced by co-writer Nick Davies ' documentary book Dark Heart ) which in spite of the director's denial that the film had " serious parallels " to Shakespeare's play, actually mirror aspects of its plot closely.

Unlike Shakespeare's Lear, but like Hidetora and Sandeman, the central character of Uli Edel's 2002 American TV adaptation King of Texas, John Lear played by Patrick Stewart, has a back-story centred on his violent rise to power.

Daniel Rosenthal comments that the film was able, by reason of having been commissioned by the cable channel TNT, to include a bleaker and more violent ending than would have been possible on the national networks.

2003's Channel 4-commissioned two-parter Second Generation set the story in the world of Asian manufacturing and music in England.