ANOTHER Jane Austen Film Adaptation

[ParisPossum]

Just seen that there is a new adaptation of Emma available to watch. While I do appreciate Jane Austen's work, it gets tedious seeing adaptations of the same novels; Pride and Prejudice has been done to death over the decades. If you could nominate your favourite fabulous classic (or two), what would it be? My vote would go to A Tale Of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge.

I enjoyed the Damian Lewis version. I've just checked and it's over 20 years old, for heaven's sake 😁

Some of RF Delderfield and AJ Cronin's novels would be worth revisiting - the dramatisation of To Serve Them All My Days and A Horseman Riding By are very dated now, so time for a rehash.

There was an adaptation in the 1980s with Timothy West as Gradgrind but agreed that the book is due a new adaptation.

I like the idea of a modern version of Madame Bovary.
I think I have read Candide but not sure, would that work?

My favorite is the 1949 version, really didnt like the 90s remake , but loved the latest version!

I feel like I know Emma and Sense and Sensibility etc back to front and upside down. How much more can be squeezed out of them?
Perhaps re explore some Evelyn Waugh?

I wish that they would do the 20th century books by Ken Follet spanning the 1920/ 1940s.

I used to read a lot of Gollancz crime and thrillers on a long commute. It's amazing how often the storylines turn up in TV detective series.

Neil Shute wrote rattling good stories - A Town Like Alice and The Far Country could be ripe for a remake. Plenty of scope with the women crime novelists, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers etc.

The issue is that Hollywood and TV networks are scared of taking gambles. They play to the lowest common denominator of tried and tested.

There are endless new Marvel films eg how many times can Batman or Spiderman be remade.

Most films have the number 2 or 3 or 4 after them as that’s seemingly all we want.

Every year so many many books get written many of which would make great films not sadly no. It’s too much of a gamble so we get rehashed stuff or sequels.

We are in Ground Hog Day ( that’s a film that would not get made now along with all the films from that era).

Mrs Gaskell North and South - brilliant. And the railway carriage ending was an improvement on the book .

Other favourites are Middlemarch and Persuasion - both done well by the BBC.

I really wish someone would do an updated adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. There hasn’t been anything for decades & they’d be so beautiful to look at, costume wise & set pieces too.

I really wish someone would do an updated adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

Who would you have to play Lord Peter? And Harriet, for that matter.

Problem with adaptations is that so many actors these days can't do the accents, and writers/adapters often ignore the manners/conventions of the times, so it all becomes unconvinicng.

I remember Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple inviting a young man she'd only recently met to call her Jane. The only people who called Miss Marple by her Christian name were women of around her own age whom she'd known for a long time. Everyone using first names just wasn't done. See Gaudy Night, where everyone was Miss Vane, Miss Martin, Miss Cattermole etc.

@MissRoseDurward I actually think Oliver Chris could play a good LPW. He fits the straw-coloured hair & slightly foolish face description!

For Harriet, I’m not sure. Who do you think?

I was watching All Creatures Great and Small and one of the children refers to Tristan as Tris and it jarred. I am sure a child in those days would have called him Mr Farnon.

@TwoDrifters2 "I really wish someone would do an updated adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. There hasn’t been anything for decades & they’d be so beautiful to look at, costume wise & set pieces too."

I just can't imagine anyone able to do it better than Edward Pethebridge and the glorious Harriet Walter.....

@CurlewKate Do you know if those adaptations are available online anywhere? It’s almost 40 years old isn’t it, that’s crazy.

It's all so personal. Persuasion is not just my favourite Austen work, but probably my favourite novel of all time and I don't love any of the portrayals of Captain Wentworth! I know people love Hinds in that role, but I felt he was not young and handsome enough, so I guess that's why different versions eventually keep getting made.

I would love a Shirley adaptation too.

This reminds me. Anyone seen that scene in The Crown where Charles finally marries Camilla en he reads Captain Wentworth's letter to her. I cringed so hard when I saw that. I don't know if that really happened, but I kept thinking "Dude, you are no Captain Wentworth"

@TwoDrifters2 I watch them on YouTube. Pretty awful picture, but better than nothing.

Who would you cast as Lucy Snowe, @ReadWithScepticism? I've cast Villette periodically in my head for about the last 30 years when insomniac, and everyone I thought was possible is now far too old -- I'd thought of a young Amanda Root, or a young Samantha Morton.

Jessie Buckley might work. She was brilliant in Women Talking.

I originally had Kenneth Branagh as Paul Emmanuel, because I thought he could do short, odd and bad-tempered, but also warm and attractive. But I suppose a French or Belgian actor would be better... Romain Duris?

Not sure about Graham. Someone sinister and French for Madame Beck -- Isabelle Adjani?

As @MissRoseDurward says so much is about accents and manners and I think mannerisms. Ian Carmichael used to slip into the 1920s&30s so well.
Do you think all the Peter Wimsey stories can be filmed convincingly?
My own preference is for the Radio versions with Ian Carmichael.

I'd love to see more Wilkie Collins. Arnadale would be fun (who would be Lydia Gwilt? Karen Gillan might be interesting.), or No Name. They are so bonkers, I love them, and am amazed they haven't been televised.

I actually think Oliver Chris could play a good LPW.

Just looked him up. I agree he has the right sort of look. My ideal casting for LPW has always been Leslie Howard. Don't know about Harriet, I'm not well up on 30-ish actresses.

I just can't imagine anyone able to do it better than Edward Pethebridge and the glorious Harriet Walter.....

Miss Climpson was wrong, though. Too young, too attractve, too well dressed.

one of the children refers to Tristan as Tris and it jarred. I am sure a child in those days would have called him Mr Farnon.

Yes, and an older man might have been addressed as sir. (LPW, who socially outranks most people, calls older men sir as a matter of courtesy.)

I think someone could have immense fun adapting Fanny Burney's Evalina.
Or Helen by Maria Edgeworth.

Regency Buck or These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer would make excellent TV viewing.

What’s wrong with Rupert Penry Jones? !! And Anthony Head was great as the baronet.