Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Greta Gerwig received unanimous acclaim for directing Lady Bird in 2017 which earned several Academy nominations and took home in two categories. The actor-turned-director is now adapting the 1868 novel Little Women for silver screen.

Talking about Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Gerwig told The Hollywood Reporter: “It was just a part of me. These girls felt like my sisters and their memories felt like my memories. It was the book for me.”

The novel follows the romantic and social adventures of four March sisters — Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth. It is considered a classic and has been adapted into films seven times, including a 1917 silent version, a 1933 production with actor Katharine Hepburn, and a 1994 film starring actors Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dunst.

Despite this, Gerwig feels there is room for one more. “I said, ‘I have to make this movie,’ ” she recalls. “I felt like I was seized by the spirit of Louisa May Alcott.”

In 2016, before she had started working on Lady Bird, Gerwig was informed by her agents that Columbia Pictures was wanting to make another Little Women adaptation. She then had a meeting with a former Sony chief who later became independent producer, and convinced her that she had a fresh and modern approach to remaking the story. 

But the project did not materialise and Gerwig went on to make the successful coming-of-age Lady Bird. She recalls how the studio asked her,  ‘Would you like to direct Little Women? And I said, ‘Well, I was waiting for you to ask!’ 

By Yash Singh

A film graduate who writes for a living, apparently.

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