How long have I been here at /Film, remind me?  About 25 hours I think, and already I’m onto my second Diablo Cody story.  Dangerous stuff for a man once told by his wife that he “isn’t allowed” to get a crush on the Juno scribe.

This one comes from a mildly confusing Variety report on Mr. Steven Spielberg digging deep in his own pockets and paying from his personal funds to keep the rights of 17 in-development films under the Dreamworks umbrella.  These films include The Trial of the Chicago 7, Atlantis Rising, The 39 Clues… but not Diablo Cody’s “new spin” on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.  So, what is the connection?Well, this new Shrew is one of the films Dreamworks has lost their claim to. This set of films were lost on a contractual clause that, it seems, demanded Dreamworks to co-fund two projects already in production. Also amongst the lost films was a Lincoln biopic, presumably the one Spielberg himself has been slated to direct for quite a while now and that Liam Neeson is still attached to, though he doesn’t know anything much about it.

Don’t worry, Beardfans, I don’t think Spielberg will ditch the film just because it no longer has Dreamworks investment… or will he?  And there’s even less to worry about - Spielberg is expected to get his money back within this quarter.  Fair play to him for putting his money where his mouth is, though.

There are precisely no details of Ms. Cody’s Shrew so far (no pun intended) but Shakespeare’s Shrew is hardly a mystery.  Should you not know it, here’s a basic teaser:

Lucentio fancies Bianca but she can’t be married until her big sister Katherine is wed, and Katherine can be a bit of a pain.  Lucentio goes under cover as a Latin teacher to get time with Bianca, while some poor fellow called Petruccio turns up randomly and agrees to marry Katherine without even meeting her.  Arguably misogynist hilarity ensues and at the end, there’s a test to see who has the most loyal wife. Politically dubious but dramatically excellent stuff.

Yep, that’s right: Diablo Cody is effectively cooking up 10 Things I Hate About You: Mark Two.