Casting Call: Little Women
In which we suggest who would star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.
Sony Pictures is set to re-adapt Louisa May Alcott’s—and let’s face it, everyone’s favorite—novel, Little Women, which has seen three movie versions, the first staring Katherine Hepburn (1933) and the second starring Elizabeth Taylor (1949).
Remove that shocked look from your face. We know this is a bold move: Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 version starring Winona Ryder (earning her an Oscar nomination), Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale is pretty beloved, to say the least. To say a little more, it earned $95 million at the box office, which is all the more impressive if you consider the genre and year it was produced.
As a refresher for those of you who did not have childhoods: Little Women (1880) tells the story of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and their mother, who are struggling to make ends meet when their idealistic but absent father is injured during the Civil War. We assume this adaptation will also include the book’s sequel, Good Wives, as that’s when all the good stuff happens (Jo and Laurie, Amy and Laurie, babies ,etc).
The new adaptation has big shoes to fill, but it could approach the content differently with an interesting angle: Alcott, a notable feminist was reluctant to give her heroines happy, romantic endings.
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