After getting good reviews at film festivals in Dublin and Glasgow two weeks ago, Joss Whedon’s take on the famous Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing is about to make its American debut. More after the jump…

The movie will premiere at the South by Southwest Festival on Saturday March 9th, and will be shown twice more on the 10th and 13th. Before that, Lionsgate has started the promotion machine. A trailer is available at the movie’s website, and several other websites including YouTube.  Twitter and Facebook have also been busy spreading the word about the trailer.

The cast features a long list of actors who have been seen in other Whedon productions: Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker (both from Angel and Dollhouse)   as the battling romantics, Beatrice and Benedick, whose friends are determined to make them confess their true feelings; Sean Maher (Firefly) as the villainous Don John who’s determined to prevent Claudio (Fran Kranz from Dollhouse and The Cabin in the Woods) from marrying Hero (Jillian Morgese) by smearing her name;  Clark Gregg of The Avengers also appears as Leonato , Reed Diamond of Dollhouse as Don Pedro, and Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) plays Dogberry, the constable who tries to straighten things out.

The biggest news is that director Joss Whedon is joining some of the cast in a big bus, traveling from Los Angeles to the festival. The bus is below.

Joss also posted about the trip in Whedonesque, and announced he will be tweeting about it in the @MuchAdoFilm Twitter handle. Here’s part of his post:

Me and a bunch of cast members are taking the scenic route to the SXSW fest. 24 hours on the road, from L.A. to Austin. The bus sleeps twelve (as if we’ll sleep). It can be easily distinguished by the words MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING on the outside. We will trundle into it full of hope, comradery and excitement, and emerge a day later glassy-eyed with guilt and terror, and missing one cast-member.

On the way we’ll laugh, sing old songs, resort to cannibalism WAY too early, and abuse social media. Yes, I will be tweeting. It’ll be @MuchAdoFilm, since I’m still too lazy/confused to get my own account, but it won’t just be me trying to drum up business for the film (In theaters this June!) — I promise at least a couple of appalling pix of Fran and Ashley resorting to cannibalism (#waytooearly).

The route should take us through Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Actual Mexico, Florida… Um, Pennsylvlorida, the Middle ages, the Mist, the Mason-Dixon line, The Donner Pass (Fran and Ashley SWEAR it’s on the way, for some reason), The Place Where We Buried The Thing, and maybe your town too! If you see us, wave! Or honk! Or bleat! We ‘re excited to be joining SXSW the way the pioneers of old attended film festivals. And we’re excited to show the movie to a new audience. Those of us that make it. Hope I’m one!

Wish us luck, enjoy the trailer, and get ready for 140 characters of PURE ADRENALINE. I’ll see you in Hell. (I might not. There’s a lot of people there. Maybe text me and let me know where you’re damned, and I can try to get there.) Kiss Noise!

For a small movie that was filmed in less than two weeks at Joss Whedon’s house, it’s getting as much attention as that other  movie Joss directed last year. It will visit the Istanbul Film Festival next month before it’s released on June 7th, with a wider release on June 21st.