kenneth branagh did, i think, once. sam: yeah, he did. charlie you have four hours.: it is three hours and 45 minutes, but we have cut quite a bit. i go slow. i have a hard time making it go by fast. charlie: what was the vision you presented to oscar of what you wanted to do? how did you want to make it contemporary and at the same time bare? sam: the great thing is it came from us and our friendship over so many years. it was never like, here is my idea. we started miles and miles from where we ended up. it was what was inspiring us, what was moving us, how we were seeing our lives and ourselves reflected in the play. when it came time to go into production, it was what was on both of our minds. i think what we were both really interested in at the time we started getting into rehearsals was the death of the father. the play starts with the death of hamlet's father and about his grief and mourning process and the stages of grief he is going through. the idea of a man who has lost his father and the grief sending him into madness was something i think both of us cou