Claim: Brian Blessed stars in As You Like It.

As You Like It is a 2006 film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh , and based on the Shakespearean play of the same name . It stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Rosalind , David Oyelowo as Orlando De Boys , Romola Garai as Celia , Adrian Lester as Oliver De Boys , Alfred Molina as Touchstone , Kevin Kline as Jaques , Janet McTeer as Audrey , and Brian Blessed as Duke Frederick and his brother Duke Senior .   Branagh moved the play 's setting from medieval France to a late 19th century European colony in Japan after the Meiji Restoration . Branagh filmed it at Shepperton Film Studios and at the never-before-filmed gardens of Wakehurst Place . The film is a production of The Shakespeare Film Company , financed by HBO Films . It is Kenneth Branagh 's first Shakespearean film shot in a Super 35 format .