The TV Addict 

Though by now those who cruise the blogosphere are probably quite accustomed to the snarky remarks of bloggers complaining about Hollywood’s tendency to remake anything that is even remotely remakable, this particular rant is going to take on a bit more of a literary slant (finally, that English BA is getting put to use!).

My rant is as follows: enough with bloody remaking Jane Austen and Brontë sister novels a kabajillion times! BBC gave us the quintessential adaptation of PRIDE & PREJUDICE with the Colin Firth mini-series, and yet we got the same story reworked in a modern setting (BRIDGET JONES), and of course someone somewhere felt that it’d be a good idea to still make a film starring Keira Knightly (who admittedly, to me, was the quintessential Lizzie Bennet). Look up WUTHERING HEIGHTS on IMDB and you’ll be flooded with adaptations of that novel, and yet we’re getting another one starring Natalie Portman that’s expected to hit theatres in 2010. If you’re still on IMDB, type in JANE EYRE and you’ll see things get worse. There are even more adaptations of that one than WUTHERING HEIGHTS. There was a theatrical film in 1996, a BBC mini-series in 1997 (with Samantha Morton), another BBC mini-series in 2006, and now they’re doing it again, this time with Ellen Page supposed to star as the famous literary heroine (which is also pretty poor casting, even if one could argue that Jane Eyre is a predecessor of sorts for someone like Juno).

I mean did the BBC get blackmailed into having to make one Austen/ Brontë project every few years in order to get funding for their other projects? Or are the filmmakers involved really so egotistical to imagine that they can really bring us much of a better adaptation than the ones other have? Or is it perhaps obsessive fandom that compels them, their frustration that others didn’t get it quite right, and they just have to give it a shot to prove they can be truer to the source material?

Enough is enough though. They’re drawing from great source material (except for “Wuthering Heights” which I wasn’t big on) so I do get that element of it, but I think this is a case where these literary women are now meant to be read, not seen or heard.