AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 10: Producer/Director/Writer Joss Whedon speaks at the “A Conversation with Joss Whedon†Panel during the 2012 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Austin Convention Center on March 10, 2012 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for SXSW)
Photo: Michael Buckner/2012 Getty Images
Lionsgate dug Joss Whedon’s ultra-low-budget Much Ado About Nothing project at the Toronto Film Festival enough to snap up distribution rights for North America, Deadline reports. Kenneth Branagh’s big-screen adaptation of the Shakespearean play earned $22.5 million back in 1993, but whether Whedon’s attempt tops it or not is kind of irrelevant — he shot the film at his home for “one-tenth the cost of an episode of television†in the middle of post-production on The Avengers.