Wild.
Television Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' by Nicholas Winding Refn
- Thread starter Salt Bailly
- Start date
Can’t wait to see the man who plays Aunt Fanny and the girl who plays Dick
probably be disabled and foren.
Can't wait for this! Hope they don't ruin it. Think the Five Find Outers series would have been the better adaptation though.
FF belongs to another era
I like it if only as a way to introduce the books to another generation. I loved the books as a child
Me too, read and re-read them over and again.
Tried introducing the kids to it, not their cup of tea. Intrigued to see the reimagining, and which books they adapt
I used to read these as a kid. Always imagined that I'd end up living in Cornwall and using a canoe to find a Smuggler's cove. Have zero recollection of any of the stories now, didn't one of them have a parrot?
Yeah, I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton books.
The Five Find Outers were my favourite - quite humourous as well as being entertaining mysteries. The one 'with a Parrot' was 'The... of Adventure' series - with entertaining books like The Castle of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure, etc (the parrot was called Kiki).
This Famous Five 'reimagining' doesn't sound great. I've read other articles that use all the expected buzzwords - a 'reimagining' with 'a diverse cast' for 'a progressive new audience', etc.
I get the whole argument of introducing the books to a new audience. But not by changing them so much. There's all kinds of different audiences out there, and all kinds of platforms to air them, why does everything have to be 'reimagined' and 'reflect 21st century Britain', etc. Surely there's room in the schedules to cater for people who were fans of the original books, and their lovely settings, and the 'old' feel of it all. Not brought up to date so it feels like all the other new stuff being made?
The Five Find Outers were my favourite - quite humourous as well as being entertaining mysteries. The one 'with a Parrot' was 'The... of Adventure' series - with entertaining books like The Castle of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure, etc (the parrot was called Kiki).
This Famous Five 'reimagining' doesn't sound great. I've read other articles that use all the expected buzzwords - a 'reimagining' with 'a diverse cast' for 'a progressive new audience', etc.
I get the whole argument of introducing the books to a new audience. But not by changing them so much. There's all kinds of different audiences out there, and all kinds of platforms to air them, why does everything have to be 'reimagined' and 'reflect 21st century Britain', etc. Surely there's room in the schedules to cater for people who were fans of the original books, and their lovely settings, and the 'old' feel of it all. Not brought up to date so it feels like all the other new stuff being made?
They're the ones I must've read as well then.
It's a challenge for Refn's as he's going to have to add dialogue to this.
Yes older people who wouldn't watch the shows today as they are children's shows would be the audience. Since the country is more diverse today, the cast and storytelling would reflect that rather than what the children of that time (now middle aged people) would expect.
He’s definitely going to make George trans. Or at the very least, non-binary.
Julian, Dick, George, Ann and Timmy the dog are in a boat on the way to Kirrin Island. "Yo Mandem" said George, "I is proper buzzin an ting about this treasure, innit".
Julian rolled his eyes "George, why are you mis-appropriating black culture by talking like that? You're white!". "Aiiight Julian, don't be whack" said George. "I identify as black, so it's all gravy, innit and ting"
Dick was dismayed. "Let me out of this boat this instant, I am a vegan and the use of the word gravy offends me. IT'S MADE OUT OF ANIMAL JUICES FFS"
Ann was also upset. "This island is really hard to get to. Nature made it that way. We are interfering with it's ecology by going there, think of the poor animals that we are going to disturb"
Timmy the dog rolled his eyes, and jumped into the sea, preferring to drown himself than be associated with these cnuts.
The only thing is, they won't have to 'identify as black' - I'm all but certain one of the main characters will just be colour blind casting with a black actor. They did the same with a recent play version of the FF, with George played by a black actress. And recently re-made Malory Towers for children's TV, with new black and disabled characters added to the actual ones that appear in the book.
And as was pointed out, it's a 'tap in' to make George not just a tomboy but trans or non-binary - and have plenty of virtue signalling about it.
I loved the original books as a kid, but I don't really see the issue with changing race / sexual orientation of the characters? That was never the main point to me.
If they stick to the broad personalities of the characters and location settings I'll be happy. I hope they adapt the lighthouse one, that was one of my favorites.
If they stick to the broad personalities of the characters and location settings I'll be happy. I hope they adapt the lighthouse one, that was one of my favorites.
Yeah, Demon's Rocks - that was one of the better of the later books. But I think most of the first 8 were my favourite FF books.
My 'issues' with changing race or gender is twofold. One, it's a huge issue if a black character is 'whitewashed' or a female replaced by a male - so what's wrong with having the same problem when it's the other way round? I know buzzwords have been created to try to downplay that double standard - punching up / down, colour blind casting, etc - but it's still hypocrisy they're trying to downplay.
And, secondly, it's all so manufacturered and cynical. If they want to do a show about a diverse mix of kids in modern times solving crimes - then write an original story about them. But that would mean building up a new fanbase from scratch, and the show wouldn't stand out as virtue signalling anywhere near as much. So they 'reimagine' existing characters from Dickens, Blyton, Shakespeare, etc in order to get more and better PR and to latch on to the existing fanbase and worldwide awareness of those authors works.
The first is hypocritical. The second is cynical. And both are aimed at appealing to the same type of audience and not necessarily aiming it at the people who actually liked the original work and would rather see an accurate portrayal of the world created by that author.
Your hypocrisy accusation is so fecking dumb. The whole point of trying to have a more diverse cast in stuff like this is so that minorities get to see people who look like them on screen. Which wasn’t always the case. It’s a lot better now. But that’s mainly thanks to the sort of “hypocrisy” you’re moaning about.
Refn is such a bizarre choice though to Direct and oversee this adaption.
For one he's known for his rather cold, distant and rather unsympathetic character work. His worlds are visually overly saturated , tonally vain and cynical ,more so in his last two productions in Only God Forgives, which I love (even with the abysmal dialogue )and Neon Demon , and his pacing can irritate even the most patient of viewers.
Again, I like his work but odd choice.
For one he's known for his rather cold, distant and rather unsympathetic character work. His worlds are visually overly saturated , tonally vain and cynical ,more so in his last two productions in Only God Forgives, which I love (even with the abysmal dialogue )and Neon Demon , and his pacing can irritate even the most patient of viewers.
Again, I like his work but odd choice.
Yeah, it’s a really weird choice. Although when I googled this (because it seemed too nuts to be true!) it mentioned that he’s always had an interest in making Tv for kids. And this will surely be aimed at kids, right?
Looks like he is only executive producing/showrunning, so it may not go full-Refn.
Maybe...?
He was interested in directing a r-rated Bat-Girl film a few years back before he went on to direct Neon Demon, which may have actually been aesthetically and tonally interesting.
I find it really weird when works of fiction are adapted for adaptations and interpreted differently by different interpreters.
Then again Lynch did direct the successful Disney film Forrest Gump on a Tractor The Straight Story. A rather Un-Lynch film for many.