It truly is a “remake” era with producers taking on various stories/ideas and turning them into “modern time” TV shows as well as movies. And the latest to jump in on the “remake” trend is none other than American TV networks The CW, with its plans to rework “Little Women”
According to Deadline, The CW is taking on a literary classic in one of its first script buys of the 2015-16 development season. The network has put in development “Little Women”, a drama from rising writer Alexis Jolly, NCIS co-star Michael Weatherly, and CBS TV Studios.
“Little Women” is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), which was originally published in 2 volumes in 1868 and 1869. The novel follows the lives of 4 sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March – detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her 3 sisters.
“Little Women” was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers demanded to know more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume entitled “Good Wives” in the UK. It was also successful. The 2 volumes were issued in 1880 in a single work entitled, “Little Women”.
Although it was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, especially girls. The novel addressed 3 major themes: “domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine’s individual identity”.
The book has been adapted for film twice as silent films, and 4 times with sound, in 1933, 1949, 1978, and 1994. 4 television series were made, including 2 in Britain in the 1950s and 2 anime series in Japan in the 1980s. A musical version opened on Broadway in 2005. An American opera version in 1998 has been performed internationally and filmed for broadcast on US television in 2001.
Its screen adaptations over the years including features starring Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst and Christian Bale (1994), Meredith Baxter (1978), Elizabeth Taylor (1949) and Katharine Hepburn (1933). In TV, there were animated series in the 1980s.
For the upcoming The CW remake, “Little Women” is described as a hyper-stylised, gritty adaptation of the 1868 novel by Louisa May Alcott, in which disparate half-sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy band together in order to survive the dystopic streets of Philadelphia and unravel a conspiracy that stretches far beyond anything they have ever imagined – all while trying not to kill each other in the process.
The CW has yet to comment on the news but judging from what has been revealed of the remake so far, if you’re expecting a heartwarming tale of 4 sisters entering womanhood (like the original novel), stop. Because it sounds like The CW’s version of “Little Women” could turn out “The Hunger Games“-ish.
Can you imagine a “Little Women” TV series in that style though? Would you watch it? Let us know what you think. Share your comments in the box below!
Source: Deadline, HuffPost Ent.
