Often credited with creating a popular movie audience for Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh has wanted for many years to bring to the screen the complete, full-length version of Hamlet, Shakespeare's greatest play. He has now done so - as director and as the prince of Denmark - making an emotionally moving, visually spectacular movie that will become a landmark in film history. The volume includes Kenneth Branagh's elegant introduction of the genesis of his role as Hamlet as well as his full screenplay adaptation. The production diary by Russell Jackson, Shakespearean scholar and script consultant on the movie, goes behind the scenes to show what it was like to film this lavish production and to work with the leading theater and movie actors of our time.