Avengers director Joss Whedon reveals film shot entirely in secret

Even though Joss Whedon has been hard at work on The Avengers, it looks like he still found some time to write, cast, and shoot another movie — and until it was announced this weekend, nobody knew anything about it. (Except for those people involved in the production, obviously.) Via TheWrap:

On Sunday night, a website appeared announcing that Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing," which it says is "based on a play," has completed principal photography. Two people close to the project confirmed that Whedon had indeed filmed a secret movie, and only announced it on Sunday night.

The independent film doesn't yet have distribution.

You can check out the site here, but it doesn't give much more information than what you see above, except for the cast list, which is stocked with Whedon regulars. You've got representatives from Buffy (Tom Lenk, Alexis Denisof), Angel (Amy Acker), Firefly (Nathan Fillion, Sean Maher), Dollhouse (Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz), and even The Avengers (Clark Gregg — welcome to the Whedon family, sir). I don't recognize the other names, though I would guess at least a few of them have shown up in other projects.

As far as the plot, the obvious assumption is some kind of modern-day retelling of the Shakespeare comedy. But something about the phrasing of "a play" (as opposed to "the play," "William Shakespeare's play," etc.) makes me wonder if more is going on there. Update: as noted below, the movie is definitely based on the Shakespeare play.

Either way, good work, Joss! It's not easy to keep a big project secret these days, especially with an often obsessive, internet-savvy following like you have. But before you move on to something else, can you please make sure that The Cabin in the Woods gets released? Thanks.