To think we don't really need another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice?

[squoosh]

According to the Radio Times the Poldark producers are planning an adaptation of P&P. Now God knows I love a bit of Austen, but there was the 1995 TV series and the 2005 film. And that's just in the last 25 years. And there was a stilted early 1980s version and that awful 1940-something film starring Laurence Olivier. And probably some other versions I've never even heard of. We've even had zombie P&P.

Jane herself must be rolling her eyes thinking 'have you NO imagination?'

There are so many other books that have been languishing patiently waiting for their moment in the spotlight. Let one of them be the prom queen for once!

Which book would you like to see adapted for the screen? I'd love to see a proper version of The Woman in White. I'd heard it was in the works but can't find anything on it.

P.S for all I'm complaining about yet another Pride and Prejudice that's not to say I wouldn't watch it. I just like to moan.

And how about another A Room with a View

Andrew Davies (who did the screenplay for the 1995 P&P) did ARWAV not so long ago. It had Rafe Spall in it. It was terrible and ended with George dying in WWI.

Not Room with a View, Julien Sands and Helena Bonham-Carter were so perfect in that.

I can't think which books they should re-do. Are there no new books?How about Odysseus? They could do it Game of Thrones style.

Apparently it's going to be a "darker" version, I mean wtf why?

Nothing will ever beat the 1995 adaptation, like someone else has already mentioned on this thread the amount of detail they managed to put in was amazing.

Pride and Prejudice: Poldark makers plan new Austen adaptation
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40860644

It is pretty dark though, Elizabeth and her sisters are destined for poverty and whatever charity they get from Mr Colins (probably unlikely I reckon) unless they marry well. They're standing looking into an abyss and they may have to come to terms with marrying men they don't like to avoid it.

I love the 2005 film. The cinematography is gorgeous and I love the way they capture the "muddiness" of life at that time.

Not so much a fan of the BBC version: very much of its time. I would love to see a darker, more realistic interpretation.

I was 16 when the 1995 adaptation was released and Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth are my Elizabeth and Darcy. My teen daughter's about to delve in to Austen though and I definitely think it's time for a new adaptation.

I'm pleased P&P will be serialised on TV again as the Andrew Davies version was so true to the book and very thorough, too much missed out in the Keira Knightley film.

One thing I'm not sure of is the 'teasing out of the dark undertones' and how far they're going to go with that. Pride and Prejudice is a witty social commentary and I want to see Austen's wry humour come through.

On the one hand I can see why writers and directors want a crack at a classic.

We don't worry when there's a new production of Shakespeare after all.

But I do wonder how much of this is driven by the creatives and how much by the money men .

I didn't like the Keira Knightley version of P&P mainly because Matthew Macfadyen permanently looked like he was just about to burst into tears, which is not very Darcy ish

I cringe at the 'I love, I love, I love you' bit. Don't know why. Is he stuttering? Does he love her three times as much as everyone else?

They're all racing to get their lines out in the 2005 version as well. It's quite irritating. (Although I do like Charlotte Lucas defending her decision to marry Mr Collins).

Actually, I reckon YABU. Colin Firth was the definitive Mr D. for our generation- but I bet if you were to watch the 90s version through the eyes of a teenager then he would look like Noah just jumped off the Ark.

I'd also like to see a new version of Little Women. My DDs loved the recent Ballet Shoes. They probably enjoy that as well.

BreakfastAtSquiffanys

I didn't like the Keira Knightley version of P&P mainly because Matthew Macfadyen permanently looked like he was just about to burst into tears, which is not very Darcy is

Matthew McFadyen always looks like that. It's a face thing.

I'd also like to see a new Tenant of Wildfell Hall as well though. I though poor old Anne Bronte gets woefully overlooked on all counts.

For a good reason ... she's shit.

As a fascinating polemic into mid-Victorian socio-legal issues surrounding women, it's probably unparalleled. And if it had been left there, alls well and good. How it made it onto the O level syllabus as being good literature ?

I'd already read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights before having to read "the other one".

To answer the OP, I feel that you simply can't have enough Jane Austen in your life. Although I do wonder if some of the popularity arises from some people watching saying "Hmmmm, what a good idea - not letting women vote, or own property ...."

Just what I was going to say Jacques, a new adaptation of a book is not a 'remake'. I'd prefer something else, but who knows, maybe it will be different enough that there won't be constant comparisons with the 1995 one.

Also, if the Poldark crowd do it, I would worry about their propensity to gallop through too quickly. I know they have to hold everyone's interest and avoid becoming plodding and dull but the way they are racing through the whole Ossie/Rowella/Morwenna scenario, when in the books it is so good, is a shame.

They have galloped through the Ossie and Rowella story line far too speedily, especially considering they spent two series droning on about dull mine business (I do realise the dull mine stuff is the whole point of the thing ), but aren't there 10 or so Poldark books? The producers probably feel they need to fly through the major stories before their leads jump ship and try their luck in Hollywood.

I'd like to see some gothic horror remakes like Frankenstein, Dracula etc. There was a Jekyll and Hyde one recently.

I love the 2005 film. The cinematography is gorgeous and I love the way they capture the "muddiness" of life at that time.

The cinematography is gorgeous, lots of lovely scenes in dappled light. But for me that its main saving grace. And the sets. But Keira Knightley as Lizzy? Nope. I'm sure Austen would have mentioned it if Lizzy was a gurner. And MacFadyen's stuttering in the Big Romantic Scene always jars. Oh and Donald Sutherland's Hollywood teeth always make me Maybe that's why he couldn't manage to save or his daughter's, he was spending it all on veneers!

For a good reason ... she's shit

In your opinion. Mine differs. The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall is at least as good, if not better, than Jane Eyre.

I agree that the 1995 P&P is very difficult to better in many aspects. The casting was great, it was beautifully filmed with attention to detail and the style of the filming hasn't dated heavily.

I don't like the trend of making things dark and whispery. Sometimes I wonder if I've traded in on a black and white TV with crap speakers as so many recent series have such dull filters on the colour and the speech inaudible. It works well for a dystopia like The Handmaids Tale, but for a rural setting with an emphasis on the absurdity of people's character and behaviour like P&P it's not needed. Yes there's the underlying background concern of inheritance and the financial fortunes/ burdens of five daughters, but the gravity of Lydia's situation was expressed sufficiently in 1995.

I just wish that quality series like that were re-run. (Wonders when DH is working away so I can dig the DVDs out...)

YY to The Woman in White.

Or even a proper welld-one version of The Moonstone. The BBC series done last year was a travesty. I'd love to see a really good Miss Clack character!

Argh, last year's version of The Moonstone was a bloody crime! No idea why they decided to turn it into a lunch time drama.

I couldn't sit through it, it enraged me too much.

And the really odd messing about of the Gabriel Betteridge character - just why? Betteridge is one of the finest characters in literature... what was the point of changing him so substantially? (Age, background, his very role and function).

I want to see I Capture The Castle adapted.

And Middlemarch.

And I think we're due a good North and South.

MumBod I don't think the rights have expired on the previous adaptation of 'I Capture the Castle' yet.

There's a recent film of I Capture the Castle starring Romola Garai and Bill Nighy. It's perfect.

I really love the 1995 BBC version, and especially Colin Firth, but then he's brilliant in all the films he's acted in. So YANBU!

But people always say that about remakes, if they loved the earlier version. I hear it constantly, for example the Star Wars films. I think the originals were far better, but my DD1 loves the prequels and Rogue 1. I then remember that of course I was a child when they came out and I would probably have felt differently if I'd seen them initially as an adult.

The same is true if you really love a book, the film can never live up to that standard.