The head of a Shakespeare troupe in Berlin said Thursday he has been forced to auction off on eBay a life-sized replica of the famed Globe Theatre used in a film by Hollywood director Roland Emmerich. Emmerich had given the theatre-in-the-round to Christian Leonard, the artistic chief of Shakespeare Company Berlin, as a gift after more than 30 of his actors appeared in a film for the director, “Anonymous”.
The production about Shakespeare by the German-born Emmerich (“Independence Day”) and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Rhys Ifans required a Globe Theater set, which was built at a cost of around 500,000 euros.
But a dejected Leonard told that he had been unable to agree with city authorities on a site to transplant the three-storey venue, a remarkable copy of the arena where Shakespeare staged his plays some 400 years ago. This left him unable to find a sponsor to cover his costs.
The set, which seats 700 people, is still at the 99-year-old Babelsberg Studios outside Berlin, where Fritz Lang made the classic “Metropolis”. But spokesman Eike Wolf said it needed to be dismantled and removed by July 30 to make room for a major production.
The new picture, “Cloud Atlas” starring Tom Hanks, starts filming in September in Babelsberg. Its producers call it the most expensive German film of all time. Leonard has now offered it for a minimum price of one euro, but the successful online bidder must agree to cover the costs of dismantling and removing the set, estimated at 50,000 euros.
He reckons it would cost about 365,000 euros to renovate the set so it would meet the construction requirements for a public theatre.
It is listed on eBay as “To be collected by bidder (will not be shipped).”