Agatha Christie Bus

Agatha Christie Bus

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Scarey News

Disney want to make a film with a 30 year old glamourous American lady playing Miss Marple - set in contemporary times.  Not really worthy of comment is it?

10 comments:

  1. Perhaps there is a positive? Young women who like Jennifer Garner, and she's a fine actress, may pick up Agatha Christie books after seeing the new film. Yes, it will be untraditional. But if it wins a new American generation to AC, is that all bad?

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  2. Hi Peggy. Yes I guess you are right if it encourages people to read the books that's great.

    What annoys me is why try and change the originals?

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  3. Pygmalion has been told many ways, to many new audiences. It was beautifully made into the musical My Fair Lady. Then it was again seen in the 1990's in the film Pretty Woman. All three versions are the same story. They are all worthy of being seen.

    If we didn't tell new stories, in new ways, then younger people may never experience them. We have the old tradional films to see again & again. Retelling the stories only promotes others to see them in a different way. If you don't like a newer version, then you can skip it. It doesn't invalidate it as art.

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  4. How true.

    Its just that I am sure a purist where Agatha's stories are concerned - I think they are perfect as they are.

    I fully understand with adaptations that you need to shorten them to fit them into the timescales and I realise that is why many characters and sub-plots are left out. What I object to is changing storylines and adding new characters, new subplots and in some cases completely changing the concept of the story.

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  5. Anne, well said. Hopefully it will be done right one of these times. They probably re-write the story to appeal to the masses. The one good thing about this is that they can't stray too far if they want the story to appeal to more groups, ages, classes, etc. The producers always think of money first - then Agatha's writings.

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  6. I think your last sentence says it all Patricia.

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  7. So I can't anticipate a good mystery from this?

    Miss Marple didn't wake up at age 79 and start solving crimes, did she? I've always wondered what her earlier years were like. Even though those stories weren't written by Agatha, they may still have some worth to them. Hopefully!

    I like a good mystery. In agreement that the Marple name is being tagged on to make money and get folks interested. We'll see.

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  8. Peg - when it comes out I will still watch it out of curiosity. You are right of course, we don't really know what Miss Marple's early life was - we can only guess.

    I will be disappointed if it is set in modern times though.

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  9. I agree no modern time settings please. But it might be interesting to see Miss Marple as a younger woman. But Miss Marple was a dithery as an old lady, I wouldn't think that a glamour girl would turn so 'spinster-ish' even if not married, do you?

    I don't know about you, but Joan Hickson was and will always be Miss Marple in my books. I understand that Agatha Christie actually asked her to be Miss Marple when she grew old enough to play the part.

    PS. I'm very happy to have bumped into your site... I'll be back......

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  10. HI Brenda - many thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave your comments. I agree that it would be fun to see Miss M as a younger woman - but it is quite difficult to imagine it. I am not sure she would have been able to solve crimes then - after all she does use her knowledge of human nature gained after many years of experience.

    Yes to me also, Joan Hickson will always be Miss Marple.

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