Classic lit adaptations we need and the directors we want for them
The perfect marriage between bibliophilia and cinephilia.
A tweet this morning from @SketchesbyBoze (The Library Owl) kicked off a beautiful discussion:
And oh boy did we jump on dreaming up director/literature pairings. We went through several (including Taika Waiti doing a version of Hitchhiker’s Guide) but narrowed our list down to 5 pairings each.
Shelby’s List:
*note with regard to mine: All books are subject to color-blind casting at the discretion of their directors. Also, most of the directors mentioned are award-winning screenplay writers, so it’s assumed they’ll also influence/adapt the script to their style.*
Greta Gerwig — Frankenstein
Gerwig has proven time and again that she delivers a strong narrative with an adeptness few other directors offer. Case in point: her revised plot structure in Little Women that somehow *improved* Louisa May Alcott’s original novel. Gerwig gives her stories room to breathe and for the dialogue to marinate in with larger themes. Imagine how much room she’d have with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein — the ultimate discussion of humanity, creation, existence, and cognizance. (wipes away drool)
Wes Anderson — Kafka’s Metamorphosis
Confession: I’m not an Anderson superfan. But Anderson masters the art of taking the stressful or suspenseful and making it pastel. Kafka’s Metamorphosis begins with our ‘hero’ Gregor Samsa waking up to find himself inexplicably transformed into a bug. The ending is equally as absurd as the premise; honestly, most Anderson films feel so Kafka-esque in story that this seemed like a natural pairing. My one demand: Adrian Brody plays Gregor Samsa.
Ava DuVernay — Sense and Sensibility
DuVernay’s filmography is broad. From Selma to 13th to When They See Us, it might be weird I paired her with one of the tamest, “whitest” novels ever written — even if it was by Jane Austen. But DuVernay never shies away from a challenge, and a color-blind retelling of Austen’s works are long overdue. And with her O.W.N. Network show “Cherish the Day”, she proved to millions that romance is certainly within her realm of superb storytelling.
Bong Joon Ho — Brave New World
A director who thrives on weird social commentary directing a movie about social commentary? Wow, Shelby, how original. Huxley and the Oscar-winning director have much to say when it comes to the bleak, abysmal future (and present) of modern society. Bong Joon Ho seemed like the only fit for this novel. Who do I need to talk to for this to happen?
Lulu Wang — The Bell Jar
Few novels move me like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. And few films brought me to tears like Lulu Wang’s The Farewell. Wang’s direction and tone felt raw, natural, and completely relatable — all traits that have kept Plath’s work from fading from public discourse. Wang doesn’t shy away from hard thematic material, and I think she could do justice to the immutable truths of mental illness in The Bell Jar.
Hamilton’s 5:
Lynne Ramsay — Crime and Punishment
When I saw We Need To Talk About Kevin, I was broken. Lynne’s ability to portray personal breakdown with compassion and considerable tension is the sort of caliber Scorcese wishes he’d had when he made Taxi Driver. As if to prove her point, she made You Were Never Really Here two years ago, which was sort of her saying, “Alright yes, I’m sure Taxi Driver is nice, but like what if we made it good?” I’m dying to see her capture Raskolnikov’s collapse in Dostoyevsky’s absolute classic.
Ari Aster — Turn of the Screw
Henry James’ novella was sort of on the cutting edge of the modern-gothic ghost story. In the hundred or so years that this story has been discussed, so many different readings have been applied to it, one of which is the extent to which our own minds project something sinister on something commonplace. I want to see Ari Aster take Turn of the Screw’s Governess and complete what he attempted with Midsommar: to flesh out the lengths to which our minds will go to process, cope with, and exorcise trauma.
Deborah Chow — The Brothers Karamozov
Deborah Chow came into public consciousness largely by directing the two best episodes of Disney+’s The Mandalorian and being connected with the forthcoming Han Solo series. But here’s what I like about her: she can handle sizzling tension and high drama, but package it to be palatable and extremely effective. She proved this with her work on Better Call Saul and Mr. Robot. Her work on courtroom drama (BCS) and paranoid plotting (Robot) make me think she is a top-notch choice to helm the classic Russian courtroom dialectic on free will, morality, and ethics. (Also why do I have Dostoyevsky on the brain?)
Guillermo Del Toro — The Call of Cthulu
Once upon a time, I heard a rumor that he was going to adapt At The Mountains of Madness, but I don’t know that it is happening. THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME WANT THIS ANY LESS. Del Toro is a wizard at creature creation, but that is not necessarily what I love about him being attached to a Lovecraft project. What makes his creature design so spot-on is his ability to adapt it to the needs of the story. His design is so effective because it doesn’t call attention to itself; rather, it immerses you into the world of horrors on the screen. The problem with Cthulu interpretations is usually that they show too much of him; I believe Del Toro’s artistry exemplifies the perfect balance necessary to reveal the cosmic horror of the ancient, sleeping god in R’yleh.
Panos Cosmatos — House of Leaves
House of Leaves shook me to my core. My first copy has been obsessively notated and ripped to shreds because it absolutely captivated and disturbed me and kept me awake until I could understand why. The thing is, I believe it to be unfilmable. Which is why I selected this Greek doctor of absurdity to be the one to try. What Panos did in Mandy and Beyond the Black Rainbow shouldn’t have been done, at the very least shouldn’t have been able to be done well. I think that, at the very least, Panos would be able to translate the spiraling madness of House’s innermost plot (there are several) into something not just filmable, but absolutely horrific (in the best possible way).
That’s it for our lists! What book/director combo are you dying to see? We went back and forth on several movies for Jordan Peele, Rian Johnson, and Taika. What would you put on your wishlist?
