(From Bambi by Felix Salten, Chapter 10)
Showing posts with label children's literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children's literature. Show all posts
Monday, November 4, 2019
Monday, October 28, 2019
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Breaking Anne
'Breaking Bad' scribe on her 'deeper' take on 'Anne of Green Gables'
CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI, THE CANADIAN PRESS 04.28.2016
Screenwriter Moira Walley Beckett, for the upcoming CBC television show "Anne of Green
Gables", who also a writer for the series "Breaking Bad", poses for a picture in front of studio
in the CBC building in Toronto, Friday April 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch
TORONTO - The former "Breaking Bad" writer in charge of CBC-TV's "Anne of Green Gables" adaptation says she's on the hunt for "a 12-year-old female Bryan Cranston."
Emmy Award-winning writer Moira Walley-Beckett notes her version of the Lucy Maud Montgomery classic includes "a very, very demanding role" for a yet-to-be-cast leading lady.
Beckett's spin on the coming-of-age tale will be "deeper" and won't shy away from Montgomery's references to a dark and difficult past.
"Anne is damaged, she never wasn't. I'm not reinventing the wheel here in that regard," Walley-Beckett says of delving into lesser known aspects of Anne's tumultuous life pre-Green Gables.
"There's this one line that she says: 'Am I talking too much? Everybody always tells me that I do. It seems to cause no end of aggravation.' When you look at that, what does that mean? What's happened in the past?
"What's happened in the past ... is that she's been smacked across the face for talking too much or she's been punished. And I want those real aspects to inform this modern Anne."
There will be flashbacks to Anne's younger days, as well as backstories for her elderly sibling caregivers, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert.
"I'm hoping to bring many, many more layers to the story that we love," says Walley-Beckett, who will executive produce with Miranda de Pencier of Northwood Entertainment.
"That's sort of my mantra for this whole project: Why are these people the way they are? What's happened, what's come before and how does that inform how they're dealing with the situation?"
Walley-Beckett is known for dark and twisted tales, most notably her work on the meth-making odyssey "Breaking Bad," starring Cranston.
She won an Emmy for the devastating "Ozymandias" episode — the third-to-last one in which (spoiler alert!) Hank is killed, Walt Jr. finally learns the truth and Walt kidnaps baby Holly, among other things.
The Vancouver native followed that up with Super Channel's "Flesh and Bone," centred on an emotionally damaged ballet dancer.
Both featured desperate, disturbing characters but neither show is all that dissimilar from Walley-Beckett's plans for "Anne," she insists.
The story will still be set in 1900s Prince Edward Island, but it will explore contemporary issues including sexism, bullying, puberty, empowerment and prejudice.
"What I'm interested in about Anne are the realities of her situation," says Walley-Beckett, who moved to Los Angeles about 15 years ago.
"What's her original wounding and what is the baggage that she's carrying in this situation and how has she been affected by the detriments of her life so far? ... You've got to think of her sort of as a rescue dog — as this pup who's been kicked around for years, been in shelters, been abused, hasn't had a safe place to be, hasn't ever been nurtured, and suddenly has an opportunity to find a forever home."
Producers are embarking on a worldwide search for their star.
Open casting calls will be held in Toronto on May 7 and 8, Vancouver on May 14 and 15, Charlottetown on May 28, and Halifax on May 29 and 30.
More casting calls will take place in the United States and Europe. Production is expected to begin this summer.
On the web: http://www.theannesearch.com
"There's this one line that she says: 'Am I talking too much? Everybody always tells me that I do. It seems to cause no end of aggravation.' When you look at that, what does that mean? What's happened in the past?
"What's happened in the past ... is that she's been smacked across the face for talking too much or she's been punished. And I want those real aspects to inform this modern Anne."
There will be flashbacks to Anne's younger days, as well as backstories for her elderly sibling caregivers, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert.
"I'm hoping to bring many, many more layers to the story that we love," says Walley-Beckett, who will executive produce with Miranda de Pencier of Northwood Entertainment.
"That's sort of my mantra for this whole project: Why are these people the way they are? What's happened, what's come before and how does that inform how they're dealing with the situation?"
Walley-Beckett is known for dark and twisted tales, most notably her work on the meth-making odyssey "Breaking Bad," starring Cranston.
She won an Emmy for the devastating "Ozymandias" episode — the third-to-last one in which (spoiler alert!) Hank is killed, Walt Jr. finally learns the truth and Walt kidnaps baby Holly, among other things.
The Vancouver native followed that up with Super Channel's "Flesh and Bone," centred on an emotionally damaged ballet dancer.
Both featured desperate, disturbing characters but neither show is all that dissimilar from Walley-Beckett's plans for "Anne," she insists.
The story will still be set in 1900s Prince Edward Island, but it will explore contemporary issues including sexism, bullying, puberty, empowerment and prejudice.
"What I'm interested in about Anne are the realities of her situation," says Walley-Beckett, who moved to Los Angeles about 15 years ago.
"What's her original wounding and what is the baggage that she's carrying in this situation and how has she been affected by the detriments of her life so far? ... You've got to think of her sort of as a rescue dog — as this pup who's been kicked around for years, been in shelters, been abused, hasn't had a safe place to be, hasn't ever been nurtured, and suddenly has an opportunity to find a forever home."
Producers are embarking on a worldwide search for their star.
Open casting calls will be held in Toronto on May 7 and 8, Vancouver on May 14 and 15, Charlottetown on May 28, and Halifax on May 29 and 30.
More casting calls will take place in the United States and Europe. Production is expected to begin this summer.
On the web: http://www.theannesearch.com
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Little Pain on the Prairie
When I was a kid there were certain things we were required to read, and the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder was one of them. This was long before that sappy TV show: the tales were plainly and effectively told, reflecting a simpler but more gruelling time when pioneers broke the sod and made houses with their own hands.
Like Jo March in Little Women, Laura is the feisty, restless and often rebellious younger child, exasperated by the sweet nature and relative passivity of her big sister Mary. When baby Carrie comes along (later to be blinded by smallpox), Laura is caught between her marginalized position in relation to Mary, and the responsibilities of a sister who suddenly must carry a heavy burden of child care.
It's all tough stuff, fed to us in grade school to make us put up or shut up, to be happy with our own cushy situations because "look what those poor girls had to live through". And indeed, with outbreaks of malaria that almost killed them and a winter so harsh they nearly starved, they did have it rough, rougher than we can even imagine.
But I was gobsmacked to discover something I never knew about those little girls on the prairie.
They wore corsets.
I recently stumbled upon this passage from one of the books I never read: Little Town on the Prairie. In this one, the girls are older, coming of age:
[Mary is trying on a new
dress that her mother has made for her, but she is unable to fasten
it.]
Laura had a sudden thought. “It’s
Mary’s corsets! It must be. The corset strings must have stretched.”
It was so. When Mary held her
breath again and Laura pulled tight the corset strings, the bodice buttoned, and
it fitted beautifully.
“I’m glad I don’t have to wear
corsets yet,” said Carrie.
“Be glad while you can be,” said
Laura. “You’ll have to wear them pretty soon.” Her corsets were a sad affliction
to her, from the
time she put them on in the morning until she took them off at night. But when girls pinned up their hair and wore skirts down to
their shoe-tops, they must wear corsets.
time she put them on in the morning until she took them off at night. But when girls pinned up their hair and wore skirts down to
their shoe-tops, they must wear corsets.
“You should wear them all night,”
Ma said. Mary did, but Laura could not bear at night the torment of the steels
that would not let
her draw a deep breath. Always before she could get to sleep, she had to take off her corsets.
“What your figure will be, goodness
knows,” Ma warned her. “When I was married, your Pa could span my waist with his
two hands.”her draw a deep breath. Always before she could get to sleep, she had to take off her corsets.
Ye gods! Laura and Mary had to strap on those awful things, then go out and work in the fields!
I had trouble believing this, until I found some authentic images of "rural women" in corsets: it appears that no matter what sort of work you did, you were required to wear these things, because it wasn't decent NOT to.
The women above are plainly corseted. Like Pa, a man could practically span those tiny waists with his two hands.
A little harder to make out, but yes, these women, threshing hay or thrashing it or whatever-the-hell they did to it, are wearing corsets. The poses look a little unnatural, but nobody knew how to pose in those days because cameras were like something from Mars.
This is my personal favorite. The two cow heads make her waist look even smaller, a great optical illusion. Perhaps she took them around with her, even to the community dances, to boost her chances of a good match.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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