A gun-toting Shakespeare adaptation unexpectedly riddles the Bard with streaming bullets

The works of William Shakespeare remain in a constant state of adaptation hundreds of years after first being created, but one unique modern spin on the Bard’s methods is to update his stories for the modern era and fill them full of lead, with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet kicking off the unexpected subgenre in 1996.

Since then, we’ve seen Gerard Butler wielding an assault rifle in Ralph Fiennes’ bone-crunching Coriolanus, while the aforementioned star-crossed lovers also served as the inspiration behind aptly-named action comedy crime caper Die in a Gunfight, as if it needed to be made more obvious.

In typical Luhrmann fashion, Romeo + Juliet is all style over substance, even if it’s incredible style. Loathed by purists but embraced by the general public to the tune of almost $150 million at the box office, it helped introduce Shakespeare to an entirely new generation, as much as it upsets those who prefer their Billy Shakes to be handled the old-fashioned and original way.

More than a quarter of a century later and the doomed romance continues capturing new fans on streaming, too, with FlixPatrol revealing the stacked cast of past, present, and future stars indulging their Shakespearean impulses has become one of the top-viewed features on the Starz global rankings.

It helped put Luhrmann on the map, gave “hip” teachers a means to bring the story to their students, and holds up pretty well if you like your dramas to be mostly sizzle with very little steak to provide the cinematic sustenance Shakespeare requires. Don’t mention it to the snobs, though.