Anne spelt with an "e"
January 16, 2016 1:41 PM Subscribe
A new adaptation of Anne of Green Gables is in the works. Not everybody is convinced this is a great idea. Megan Follows's Anne Shirley will be hard to top—she had the part nailed from the time she auditioned.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- Brandon Blatcher
Is this an MTV production? What could possibly go wrong?
posted by sammyo at 1:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 1:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ever since the 1985 Anne, we don't even need the book anymore. What makes these people think that we need a new series? Who will match Megan Follows's melodrama!? This is a fool's errand! A scandal!
posted by Krazor at 2:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Krazor at 2:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
There were other Anne of Green Gables adaptations before our beloved 1985 one (loved Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, and so many of the supporting actors that were just perfect for the roles they were in).
I can't imagine loving any other one more, but as Rachel Lynde would probably say to us: "The sun will go on rising and setting whether they do a new adaption or not."
posted by discopolo at 2:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
I can't imagine loving any other one more, but as Rachel Lynde would probably say to us: "The sun will go on rising and setting whether they do a new adaption or not."
posted by discopolo at 2:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
I'm going to go ahead and commit internet suicide and say that I didn't think the old version did the books justice. I thought in the old series Marilla was too mean and Anne was too normal -- she should have spent more time staring weirdly into space or talking even more rapid-fire than she did.
Also that clarinet theme has been stuck in my head for 25 YEARS NOW.
posted by daisystomper at 2:16 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
Also that clarinet theme has been stuck in my head for 25 YEARS NOW.
posted by daisystomper at 2:16 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
This doesn't look like it is marketed to a wide audience, it's going for the same market other CBC shows are targeting... Unless you watch their other shows, I don't think this is for you.
posted by FallowKing at 2:23 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by FallowKing at 2:23 PM on January 16, 2016
But will William Murdoch make a cameo to solve the murder of Matthew???
posted by GuyZero at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]
It'll be interesting to compare this version with Green Gables Fables, which is currently active on YouTube (right now viewers are all cringing through the Royal Gardner arc).
posted by angelchrys at 2:31 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by angelchrys at 2:31 PM on January 16, 2016
For crying out loud, CBC, find something else to re-re-re-adapt twice a decade. There's got to be at least one other Canadian author whose works have passed into the public domain, right? Maybe even, heaven forfend, an original idea or two? There are other things!
The '85 version was perfect. Maybe not a perfect note-for-note adaptation, but a perfect film in and of itself. Kevin Sullivan spent 30 years trying in vain to recapture that perfection. It can't be done. Let's move on, shall we?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:31 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
The '85 version was perfect. Maybe not a perfect note-for-note adaptation, but a perfect film in and of itself. Kevin Sullivan spent 30 years trying in vain to recapture that perfection. It can't be done. Let's move on, shall we?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:31 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
Fat Pony, The Musical.
posted by idiopath at 2:33 PM on January 16, 2016 [34 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 2:33 PM on January 16, 2016 [34 favorites]
Just so long as it isn't updated with Juno/LOL-speak and set in Newport Beach.
posted by Flashman at 2:36 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by Flashman at 2:36 PM on January 16, 2016
Will Drake play Anne's wheelchair-bound BFF?
posted by GuyZero at 2:40 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 2:40 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
Slight derail: any time I read or see anything related to Anne of Green Gables I think of Emily of New Moon. Specifically this Canadian adaptation. I think about the two years I worked night audit for our family hotel and how it would come on at 4 a.m. and it was the only thing that would keep me going until 7 a.m. when my shift was over. I had absolutely zero knowledge of the books and yet I found myself looking forward to this show every single day of my night-shift. Maybe it was the fact that it signalled the end of my shift, but it was also just fun to watch. I may or may not watch this new adaptation.
posted by Fizz at 2:41 PM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 2:41 PM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]
For some reason I thought this starred Sarah Polley?
posted by infinitewindow at 2:49 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by infinitewindow at 2:49 PM on January 16, 2016
Megan Follows was great and all, but if she'd really been committed to the role she would have changed her name.
posted by Knappster at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Knappster at 2:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
CBC courts younger viewers with yet another adaptation of 100 year old novel.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
Will there be puffy sleeves?
posted by drezdn at 3:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 3:07 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
My mother, who was a fan of Montgomery's books from her own childhood, took to referring to the various Anne sequels and Road to Avonlea as "Anne of Everything Else."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
Sarah Polley was in the Avonlea spinoff.
posted by brujita at 3:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by brujita at 3:15 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
This is blasphemy to me. Besides, did they learn nothing from that abomination of the "Continuing Story" or whatever it was when they sent Anne to WWI?
posted by TwoStride at 3:17 PM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 3:17 PM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
This and Road to Avonlea (which starred Sarah Polley) were regular Sunday viewing in our household growing up. It was the one of the few thing all three girls could agree on.
The continuing story WWI thing was never in the the rotation (my mother pretended it never existed).
posted by ghost phoneme at 3:20 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
The continuing story WWI thing was never in the the rotation (my mother pretended it never existed).
posted by ghost phoneme at 3:20 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
When the Guardian initially published the news, they described it as the classic tale of an orphaned girl sent to live in a small town in the US. They changed it without noting the error, but not before it got posted everywhere.
posted by jeather at 3:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by jeather at 3:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'd rather they made an extended version of Anne of Green Gut.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:36 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Space Coyote at 3:36 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
"You can't make Return to Beaver Creek without Adele!"
posted by dannyboybell at 3:48 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by dannyboybell at 3:48 PM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
These days, Megan Follows plays the scheming Catherine De Medici on the CW costume melodrama "Reign", chewing up the scenery like a woochipper stuck in high gear. It's so weird to watch this 40-something cougar and remember back to sweet, virginal Anne Shirley, who I had SUCH a crush on thirty years ago.
posted by briank at 4:27 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 4:27 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
What we do need is a decent Rilla of Ingleside series.
posted by bgal81 at 4:47 PM on January 16, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by bgal81 at 4:47 PM on January 16, 2016 [13 favorites]
I'd much rather see a tv series of The Blue Castle instead.
posted by ilovewinter at 4:53 PM on January 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by ilovewinter at 4:53 PM on January 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
What we do need is a decent Rilla of Ingleside series.
Yeth.
posted by TwoStride at 4:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [20 favorites]
Yeth.
posted by TwoStride at 4:57 PM on January 16, 2016 [20 favorites]
The real question is this: Will the new version have the mandatory minimum of two Kids in the Hall?
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:01 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:01 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
I don't care for the tone of this thread. I approve of any attempt at a versioning of Anne spelled with an E, yay with with this!!! I will not let Metafilter "nothing is as good as the origina"l groupthink (that I normally agree with) stand in my way of shameless glee of being excited about any, any ANY adaptation of one of my most influential, inspiring, beloved characters of my childhood/adulthood/lifehood!
I confess, I may be drunk in a cab right now but the excitement is still genuine!
posted by like_neon at 5:12 PM on January 16, 2016 [12 favorites]
I confess, I may be drunk in a cab right now but the excitement is still genuine!
posted by like_neon at 5:12 PM on January 16, 2016 [12 favorites]
Metafilter: I confess, I may be drunk in a cab right now but the excitement is still genuine!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:35 PM on January 16, 2016 [21 favorites]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:35 PM on January 16, 2016 [21 favorites]
So let me get this straight, When Calls the Heart is the Corner Gas to Anne of Green Gable's Kids in the Hall?
posted by infinitewindow at 5:59 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 5:59 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Brava, like_neon. I'm excited that new people will be exposed to the story and that everyone else can enjoy (or pillory) a new look at the red-headed snippet.
posted by mynameisluka at 6:34 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by mynameisluka at 6:34 PM on January 16, 2016
What a stunning audition; she's luminous. Loved the series as a kid- thanks for sharing!
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:52 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:52 PM on January 16, 2016
I'd like to see The Blue Castle and The Tangled Web done instead. I'd also like to see a L.M. Montgomery biopic, but I realize that such a miniseries would be too depressing and probably isn't even filmable.
That whole Anne of Flanders Fields fiasco was just too wretched, as was Road to Avonlea and the Emily of New Moon series. I can't stand the way the producers tried to cash in on L.M. Montgomery's name without, you know, actually using her work.
posted by orange swan at 7:03 PM on January 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
That whole Anne of Flanders Fields fiasco was just too wretched, as was Road to Avonlea and the Emily of New Moon series. I can't stand the way the producers tried to cash in on L.M. Montgomery's name without, you know, actually using her work.
posted by orange swan at 7:03 PM on January 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
No, no - Anne Elk. Brackets miss brackets.
Ahhh there we go. Sorry, you were saying?
posted by petebest at 7:32 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ahhh there we go. Sorry, you were saying?
posted by petebest at 7:32 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
I just came here to say my wife is a red auburn haired English major and our oldest is named Cordelia. These two facts are not coincidental.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]
I just hope they don't go in too heavily on the romance with Gilbert which adaptations seem POWERLESS TO AVOID because what is a movie without a romantic subplot? But Anne keeping Gilbert at uninterested arm's length for most of the book is like part of the whole point Montgomery was making about Anne's growth to adulthood, which doesn't require romantic love. The love in Anne's life is her virgin mother/daughter Marilla (St. Anne is the mother of St. Mary, it's not an accidental name), who Anne both mothers and is mothered by; earth mother Rachel (after the Biblical Rachel); her intensely romantically loved Pagan other half Diana, who is always depicted with the color red (for passion and earthly pleasures); and Matthew, in the role of the quiet, passive, all-supportive, unconditionally-loving parent that is typically assigned to the mother but here is very deliberately given to a man. There is NO ROOM in Anne's love life for romantic love or BOYS, not until she grows into herself through the three women in her life and Matthew. Gilbert is a promise for the future, not a romance for today. (And really, we hardly learn anything about Gilbert in the first book, we all fall in love with him pretty much entirely because he has the VERY GOOD SENSE to fall in love with Anne. That's his primary virtue.)
Anyway, I will be really irritated if it's all Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert. Anne is a book about relationships among WOMEN and Montgomery deliberately excludes men other than Matthew (who is given a deliberately passive, traditionally feminine role!) because dudes and romantic love are not relevant. If they make romantic love Anne's central goal and reward in the adaptation, I will spit nails.
(If you start reading with this absence of dudes and centrality of women in mind, it's startling how little we see, say, Reverend Alden. Or Roy Gardiner, who we hear way more about through Anne's roommates or Roy's sister than via actually seeing Roy himself. Or even Gilbert, really, except in Anne's House of Dreams, where we get a pretty good chunk of Gilbert and Captain Jim -- we get more dude scenes with them than anywhere else in the series -- but even then the central relationship of the novel isn't Anne and Gilbert, it's Anne and Leslie. It's startling what clear pictures of men Montgomery manages to create through the women in their lives, while keeping the men themselves almost entirely off-stage.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:17 PM on January 16, 2016 [63 favorites]
Anyway, I will be really irritated if it's all Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert. Anne is a book about relationships among WOMEN and Montgomery deliberately excludes men other than Matthew (who is given a deliberately passive, traditionally feminine role!) because dudes and romantic love are not relevant. If they make romantic love Anne's central goal and reward in the adaptation, I will spit nails.
(If you start reading with this absence of dudes and centrality of women in mind, it's startling how little we see, say, Reverend Alden. Or Roy Gardiner, who we hear way more about through Anne's roommates or Roy's sister than via actually seeing Roy himself. Or even Gilbert, really, except in Anne's House of Dreams, where we get a pretty good chunk of Gilbert and Captain Jim -- we get more dude scenes with them than anywhere else in the series -- but even then the central relationship of the novel isn't Anne and Gilbert, it's Anne and Leslie. It's startling what clear pictures of men Montgomery manages to create through the women in their lives, while keeping the men themselves almost entirely off-stage.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:17 PM on January 16, 2016 [63 favorites]
You've been giving this some thought.
posted by Flashman at 8:23 PM on January 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Flashman at 8:23 PM on January 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives,
The character is 11 at the start of the book. They only changed it to 13 so one actor (Follows) could play her from 13-16 (when she graduates from Queens).
posted by jb at 8:36 PM on January 16, 2016
The character is 11 at the start of the book. They only changed it to 13 so one actor (Follows) could play her from 13-16 (when she graduates from Queens).
posted by jb at 8:36 PM on January 16, 2016
I'd much rather see a tv series of The Blue Castle instead.
posted by ilovewinter
Oh no! Not unless I can write and direct it (I have the draft script somewhere), and it would be better as a mini-series/movie than an ongoing one. Something like the super faithful treatment that Pride & Prejudice got from the BBC, only with a different colour palette (very grey for the town scenes, more colourful but still decidely boreal for the Muskoka scenes).
I've given this a lot of thought.
posted by jb at 8:40 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by ilovewinter
Oh no! Not unless I can write and direct it (I have the draft script somewhere), and it would be better as a mini-series/movie than an ongoing one. Something like the super faithful treatment that Pride & Prejudice got from the BBC, only with a different colour palette (very grey for the town scenes, more colourful but still decidely boreal for the Muskoka scenes).
I've given this a lot of thought.
posted by jb at 8:40 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
Who will you cast as your Valancy and your Barney Snaith?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:52 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:52 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Who will you cast as your Valancy and your Barney Snaith?
No idea - I mostly was thinking about script and stage directions. But probably no one from Hollywood. Better to go with someone who was just right than someone who was known. And definitely, neither can be classically beautiful.
posted by jb at 6:48 AM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
No idea - I mostly was thinking about script and stage directions. But probably no one from Hollywood. Better to go with someone who was just right than someone who was known. And definitely, neither can be classically beautiful.
posted by jb at 6:48 AM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
Somewhere on Prince Edward Island a shadowy figure has called in some favors.
posted by Nerd of the North at 8:48 AM on January 17, 2016
posted by Nerd of the North at 8:48 AM on January 17, 2016
Fat Pony, The Musical.
With Brian Blessed as The King
posted by DowBits at 12:31 PM on January 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
With Brian Blessed as The King
posted by DowBits at 12:31 PM on January 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's Rev. Allen (Alden is from the Little House books, which also have amazing themes of women in relationship). Signed, Awful LMM Pedant.
posted by mynameisluka at 12:40 PM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mynameisluka at 12:40 PM on January 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
Are they going to do a crossover with the other popular show set in Atlantic Canada, Trailer Park Boys? Oh, the possibilities.
posted by theorique at 1:29 AM on January 18, 2016
posted by theorique at 1:29 AM on January 18, 2016
I thought in the old series Marilla was too mean and Anne was too normal.
I have to agree with this. As a weird and lonely red-haired girl who found these books in the early 80s, when I was the same age as Anne is in the book, these books were an oasis of hopefulness and passion and exuberance in an otherwise bleak life. That character truly helped me accept and embrace who I am. So I guess no filmed adaptation could ever really match how it all played out in my overly active imagination. It's cool that more people will be exposed to the stories, but I'm glad I sent my 11-year-old niece a leatherbound edition for Christmas.
(I bought a copy for myself because the the pages on my original paperback are brittle from years of re-reading. And it's on my nighttable as I write this.)
posted by flyingsquirrel at 8:48 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have to agree with this. As a weird and lonely red-haired girl who found these books in the early 80s, when I was the same age as Anne is in the book, these books were an oasis of hopefulness and passion and exuberance in an otherwise bleak life. That character truly helped me accept and embrace who I am. So I guess no filmed adaptation could ever really match how it all played out in my overly active imagination. It's cool that more people will be exposed to the stories, but I'm glad I sent my 11-year-old niece a leatherbound edition for Christmas.
(I bought a copy for myself because the the pages on my original paperback are brittle from years of re-reading. And it's on my nighttable as I write this.)
posted by flyingsquirrel at 8:48 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
They released a trailer for it. I'm torn between the "this is kinda bland" and "PRESIDENT BARTLET IS THE BEST CHOICE EVER FOR MATTHEW!!" positions.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:01 PM on January 20, 2016
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:01 PM on January 20, 2016
I love Martin Sheen, but he seems awfully talkative in that trailer. Everyone knows that most of Mathew's lines are just, "uh huh," and "I reckon ..."
posted by jb at 2:15 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jb at 2:15 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Hmmm... why does Diana have brown hair instead of raven black??
This does not bode well...
posted by like_neon at 1:55 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
This does not bode well...
posted by like_neon at 1:55 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
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