Prospero's Books

Prospero was Sir John Gielgud's favorite stage role and he had attempted to mount a movie of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" for decades, contacting Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Ingmar Bergman about directing, and Welles and Albert Finney about playing Caliban. The version with Welles directing and playing Caliban was in preparation until the financial failure of Welles' and Gielgud's movie of Falstaff (1966) forced the project to fall through, where it laid dormant until Gielgud finally convinced Peter Greenaway to make this version.

The German DVD version has two title cards before the opening credits explaining prior events and the premise of the film.

Featured in At the Movies: Paradise/Livin' Large/The Fisher King/The Indian Runner (1991)