Why are they making another Emma?

[doadeer]

I've seen the trailer twice and I'm not keen on the characters at all! I don't get the Emma or Mr Knightly casting.... For me the Gwyneth Paltrow one is just great.

What does everyone else think about the new version?

I loved the Gwyneth version of Emma although whoever put that wig on Ewan Mcgregor needs shooting! Also adored Johnny Lee Miller’s Mr K.

Casting Billie Piper in Mansfield Park was an abomination. They should make that again!

For me, Johnny Lee Miller is forever Edmund in Mansfield Park and Sick Boy.

doadeer Cant believe they managed to make Hull look presentable. Did you see the Death Of Stalin? same makers and feel as David Copperfield(from what ive seen of trailers)

I love Jane Austen and I am open-minded about new adaptations, I'll definitely watch this one.

For me, the definitive adaptation of Emma is the 90s one with Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong. His "badly done, Emma, badly done" was perfect! So we'll see how this one compares.

I do agree with PPs that Sense & Sensibility by Emma Thompson and Ang Lee was utter perfection and will never be surpassed.

I am not a fan of Kiera Knightley at all but I was pleasantly surprised by the P&P adaptation with her in it.

I'd love to see a new adaptation of Persuasion, although I quite liked Sally Hawkins as Anne.

Patroclus

Haha! I've never been to Hull but it did look lovely!

I think he is my neighbour the shady one always in debt - I see him in coffee shops all the time 🤣

Oh sweet Jesus and all his little pixies. Don't remind me of Billie Piper. Dreadful, dreadful production.

You're wrong about the Emma Thompson S&S though. It's wonderful, sure, except for Emma Thompson herself imho. She should have trusted her own instincts and not played Elinor.

Really? I thought she was wonderful. Too old?

Too old; too Emma.

Although I get tired of remakes it usually reminds me about how children like hearing the same stories repeated, and I think perhaps we don't fully grow out of this. There's something comforting in a familiar tale.

I'm always interested in the costumes. Has anyone on here seen the 1940 Laurence Olivier Pride and Prejudice? They used women's costumes from a later period, I suspect to show off the women's waists. One dress Lizzy wore looked like Scarlett O'Hara at the Twelve Oaks barbecue.

Yes, those billowing dresses are just awful!

The Olivier film was the first version of P and P I ever saw (not at the time it was made ). Then the early 80s version with Lizzie Garvie and David Rintoul. I loved that, until I saw the Firth/Ehle version which is absolutely my favourite .

I enjoyed the the Garvie/Rintoul one as well and have re-watched it several times over the years (big David Rintoul fan here). By today's media standards it does seem quite slow-moving, however.

Emma is my second to last favourite Austen (last obvs Mansfield park) so won't rush to see this but will watch at some point as I love an Austen adaptation.

Very much Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Root for Persuasion. Love the 90s P&P for Colin Firth and Anna Chancellor as Miss Bingley plus Mr Bennett and Wickham. Actually quite liked some of the Kk p&p - Jane seemed less insipid, Mrs Bennet more sympathetic and Mr Collins younger. Also love the bit in this one where Darcy gives her the letter.

I think I need to watch more Dickens. Never got on with the books.

Oh and rewatched s&s when I was ill over Christmas. It is a lovely adaptation, really funny and quite touching. Dame Em is too old though I think which sounds awful I know.

IMO the definitive version was the one with Mark Strong as the perfect Mr Knightly, Kate Beckinsale a very convincing Emma, Samantha Morton as a brilliant Harriet, and Prunella Scales as a wonderful Miss Bates.
Excellent casting all round. I forget who played Emma’s father but he was brilliant, too.

I doubt I’ll watch any new version. The trend nowadays with any period drama is to sex things up and bugger about with the dialogue to make it sound modern, both of which irritate the crap out of me.

If I’m wrong about this version then apologies in advance.

BTW, one I wish they’d make (properly, true to the period) is Lady Susan. Since it’s written in letter form it’d take a clever scriptwriter, but could be brilliant IMO. Jane evidently thoroughly enjoyed portraying a complete bitch!

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER they did make a Lady Susan film a couple of years ago. It was called Love And Friendship and starred Kate Beckinsale. I'm not sure how close it was to the source material though as I've never read it.

Oh, Vince, I had thought Love and Friendship (Freindship as I think she first wrote it) was one of her very early efforts, distinct from Lady Susan. I wouldn’t have thought L&F an appropriate title for the Lady Susan story, but there you go, Jane knew best.

Should have added, if you never have, Lady Susan is well worth a read!

I often think her least pleasant characters are some of her best - Mr Collins, Lady Catherine, Isabella in Northanger Abbey.
Ditto her irritating ones, e.g. Mrs Bennett, Miss Bates - some of their dialogue is superlative IMO.

I particularly love Mrs Bennett’s long speech towards the end of P&P, when she’s just heard that Lizzie is going to marry Mr D. A classic, IMO, and a great shame they left it out of the fantastic BBC version.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER yes I love that scene with Mrs Bennet, I would really like to see that played out on screen. Also the scene in Persuasion when Wentworth lifts Anne's troublesome nephew off her back, it's a small kindness but it means so much to her. And yes, Lady Susan is fab!

Love and friendship was one of Austen's early works, but when they made a movie of lady Susan they used that title, as Vince said. It was very close to the book, just a few bits of dialogue added.

I just looked up Love and Friendship (DVD) on Amazon, and according to the first long review, Austen’s original early-work L&F is a completely different story from the later Lady Susan, so why that title was used is a bit of a mystery.
Sounds good, though - I’m very tempted to do a one-click!

Perhaps they thought it sounded more 'Austeny', a la Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice than Lady Susan does? I enjoyed it.

I forget who played Emma’s father but he was brilliant, too.

That was Bernard Hepton. He most famously played Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the 1970s TV series of The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R.

I agree that the Beckinsale/Strong adaptation of Emma is quite good. Excellent cast.