Filmmakers' raid on classic literature

On The Road film adaptation: Viggo Mortensen, Sam Riley, Elisabeth Moss, Danny Morgan, Amy Adams, Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart. Picture: Icon Film Source: Supplied

THE giants of literature are set to rule this season's cinema box office after a raid on the classics by filmmakers.

On the big screen soon will be 10 films inspired by literary masterpieces - from new versions of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables to Yann Martel's 2003 Booker Prize-winner Life of Pi. All three are getting early Oscars buzz.

Seven of the novels being crafted into film are by authors born in the 19th century, including Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, L. Frank. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit - proof that these best-selling, highly regarded and much-loved tales have enduring themes and characters that remain relevant in a modern world.

While classic novels have been portrayed on the big screen virtually since the dawn of cinema, Monash University associate professor and author Brian McFarlane says it is unusual to have so many adaptations released within weeks of one another.

"You don't usually get so many of the big names all in one go,'' says McFarlane, who has lectured on the adaptation of literature to film for more than 30 years.

"These stories being adapted now all have powerful narrative lines, a clarity of storytelling and a striking assemblage of interesting characters.''

Actor and comedian David Walliams, who features as Uncle Pumblechook in Mike Newell's all-star Great Expectations, is not surprised the world's great novels are getting new treatment.

"The themes of these novels are evergreen. They always seem relevant to the next generation,'' he says. "Even though there have been fantastic versions of Great Expectations, the modern and young audience wants a new version.''

Screen Queensland screen culture head Richard Moore says there is a thirst for novel adaptations, which is why he included Great Expectations and Anna Karenina in next month's Brisbane Film Festival - the latter chosen as the closing-night film due to its "knock-out'' quality and "audacious" interpretation.

"The reason (classic) novels have survived so long and will never go away is that they are wonderful stories and characters,'' Moore says.

If told well, they are all-absorbing, covering universal themes like love, faithfulness, loyalty and friendship.''

The director of Anna Karenina, Joe Wright, says he chose Tolstoy's late-19th-century novel because it was the ideal vehicle for title-role star Keira Knightley, and because there was no definitive film version of the novel.

Despite there being about 12 adaptations, I didn't feel anyone had cracked it,'' Wright says. "If there had been one really great version, I would have shied away from it. I loved the Greta Garbo version, but it was not representative of the book.''

Knightley, who starred in Wright's adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), follows some of the 20th century's biggest stars, including Garbo (1935) and Vivien Leigh (1948), in portraying highly strung heroine Anna Karenina.

"When reading the book I was immediately thinking of Keira,'' Wright says. ``She is up there with the greats of the past.''
Walliams says leading directors and actors of each generation always want the chance to tackle the greatest works and roles.

"Helena Bonham Carter is an actress who was born to play the role of Miss Havisham; Robbie Coltrane is brilliant as Mr Jaggers; while to see the process of how Ralph Fiennes transforms himself into Magwitch - he's such a brilliant actor,'' he says.

Great Expectations screenwriter David Nicholls says Hollywood has always turned to novels for inspiration.

"If you flick through the best movie nominations going way back to the 1930s, including Gone With the Wind and The Philadelphia Story, there has always been an instinct on the part of movie makers to not pay for the first draft but for it to already have been shaped and polished,'' Nicholls says.

Disney national marketing manager Annabel Weedon says nothing has changed, and people want to see their favourite stories brought to life on the big screen.

"People want to be lost in these worlds they have imagined . . . they want to relive the magic and memories of reading something wonderful,'' she says.

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell, says writers can also be curious about how their work will translate into film. The upcoming cinematic version of Mitchell's 2004 masterpiece, a Booker finalist and a British Book Awards literary fiction winner, stars Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.

"There's a primal `wow' you get from seeing a character that began in your head projected larger than life on to a cinema screen,'' Mitchell says.

"And when the result is as singular a glory as the (directors) Wachowskis and Tykwer's Cloud Atlas, you feel a ticklish, unearned pride that three filmmakers at the top of their game have spent years of their creative life thinking more deeply about your novel than, I sometimes suspect, even its author did.''

Disney's Weedon says novels such as Cloud Atlas, The Hobbit, Life of Pi and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (a prequel to the more-famous The Wizard of Oz) all have highly visionary and intricate settings that had previously seemed unfilmable.

"These films wouldn't have been possible to make until recent developments in technology and special effects, which has allowed directors to create these amazing worlds,'' Weedon says.

Walter Salles, who has worked for eight years to make the first film version of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, says the seminal 1957 novel was difficult to turn into a film because it did not have a simple three-act narrative.

"On the Road is at the crossroads of what has been lived and what has been imagined. That is the book's unique resonance and originality,'' says Salles, who also included some of Kerouac's real story in the film after visiting a museum dedicated to the author and being granted access to personal letters and the original 1951 version of the novel.

The adaptation of literary giants is rarely easy. Mitchell's Cloud Atlas seemed an almost impossible book-to-film proposition. It has no clear narrative but instead has six interlocking stories in settings that range from a 19th-century South Pacific ship voyage to a post-apocalyptic world.

"All the changes (in the film) were made in the spirit of the book,'' Mitchell says. ``They paid my book the greatest compliment by disassembling it and reassembling it in the shape of a film.''

McFarlane believes novel adaptations should only be done if a filmmaker has something new to say.

"I like it when directors take classics by the scruff of the neck and make them interesting and new rather than those plodding and terribly faithful Sunday night BBC versions,'' McFarlane says.

Nicholls says that with material as amazing as Great Expectations, it was important to strike a balance between fidelity to the source but "making a movie which makes sense''.

"It is finding original ways to respond to the work,'' Nicholls says.

Wright adds that he and screenwriter Tom Stoppard only had one rule in cutting down Tolstoy's 817-page tome - they only included scenes that were about love. He and Stoppard were determined to include the hopeful story of Russian farmer Konstantin Levin, usually cut for film versions, to balance the tragic tale of Russian society wife Anna Karenina and her affair with Count Vronsky.

"Levin's story is the whole point of the novel. Without Levin, Anna's story doesn't make any sense,'' says Wright, who also made the bold but inspired decision to set much of the action in the theatre - partly for budget and practical reasons but mostly because he read a book about Russia's cultural history that described St Petersburg's high society as living their lives as if upon a stage.

While Wright chose a highly stylised interpretation, the latest Wuthering Heights is also winning acclaim - for its raw and natural qualities.

The Andrea Arnold movie features mainly first-time actors, is filmed totally on the Yorkshire moors and has no music soundtrack, just the wailing wind and the sounds of wildlife.

Salles and Walliams agree that the ultimate hope of adapting any novel to film is that new fans will turn to the original material.

"The book is the definitive. The film is the interpretation. There will always be more films . . . it will ensure authors such as Dickens keep living forever,'' Walliams says.

Classic film adaptations

1 ON THE ROAD
(in cinemas now)
Adapted from Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel. Directed by Walter Salles and stars Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart.

2 WUTHERING HEIGHTS
(in cinemas now)
Adapted from Emily Bronte's 1847 novel. Directed by Andrea Arnold and stars Kaya Scodelario and James Howson. There have been more than 30 TV and radio adaptations, with this the fifth film version. The most famous, in 1939, starred Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.

3 ANNA KARENINA
(Brisbane Film Festival, November 14-25, in cinemas January 17) Adapted from Leo Tolstoy's serial publication 1873-1877. Directed by Joe Wright and stars Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jude Law. This is the 12th cinema adaptation since 1914. The most famous version starred Vivien Leigh in 1948.

4 LES MISERABLES
(Boxing Day)
Adapted from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel. Directed by Tom Hooper and stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway. There have been more than 60 film and TV adaptations since 1897. The most famous are the 1935 film starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton, and 1998's with Geoffery Rush.\

5 THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
(Boxing Day release)
Adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 novel. Directed by Peter Jackson and stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving. The first of three Hobbit movies, with The Desolation of Smaug out in 2013 and There and Back Again (2014).

6 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
(BFF, in cinemas March 5)
Adapted from Charles Dickens' 1860-61 serial publication. Directed by Mike Newell and stars Jeremy Irvine and Helena Bonham Carter. The 10th cinema/TV version since 1917. The most famous is David Lean's 1948 Oscar winner starring John Mills and Jean Simmons.

7 LIFE OF PI
(January 1)
Adapted from Yann Martel's 2001 novel. Directed by Ang Lee and stars Suraj Sharma and Rafe Spall.

8 CLOUD ATLAS
(February)
Adapted from David Mitchell's 2004 novel. The $100 million film is directed by Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski. It stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugo Weaving.

9 OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
(March)
Adapted from L. Frank Baum's well-known 1900 novel. Directed by Sam Raimi and stars James Franco, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz.

10 THE GREAT GATSBY
(2013 release)
Adapted from F.Scott Fitzgerald's 1924 novel. Directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. This is the sixth film adaptation since 1926. The most famous version starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in 1974.
 

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