Greta Gerwig Eyes ‘Little Women’ As Her Next Project; Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Stone, Timothée Chalamet All In Talks To Star
Greta Gerwigmay have landed her next directing gig after making a splash with last year’s award-winningLady Bird. The Oscar-nominated director is reportedly eyeing aLittle Womenremake, which may have the most star-studded cast since the lastLittle Womenfeature film.Varietyreports that Greta Gerwig is in talks with Columbia Pictures to helm a newLittle Womenadaptation. The project is already attracting an array of A-list actors who are circling roles, includingMeryl Streep, Emma Stone, andFlorence Pugh, as well as Gerwig’sLady BirdstarsSaoirse RonanandTimothée Chalamet.
Ronan is eyeing the role of Jo March, the strong-headed writer and de facto protagonist of the series, while Chalamet would play Jo’s childhood friend (and the dreamboat of many a young reader’s fantasies) Laurie Laurence. Stone and Pugh are in talks to play Jo’s sisters, Meg and Amy, respectively, while Streep is eyeing the role of Marmee, the mother struggling to raise her four teenage daughters while her husband has been called away by the Civil War. The studio is currently testing actresses for the role of the kind-hearted sister Beth.
Gerwig was initially brought in to rewrite the draft forLittle Women, but followingLady Bird’s massive critical and commercial success, Sony has been wooing Gerwig to direct the film. Sources tell Variety that Gerwig is on board once she secures her “dream cast,” which the above actors may very well be.
This adaptation ofLouisa May Alcott’s beloved novel will reportedly be a “retelling” of the coming-of-age tale of four sisters growing up during the Civil War. If it’s a “retelling,” it’s possible that Gerwig’s adaptation will be a modern remake — which makes some sense considering the ages of the actors in talks for the sisters are much older than the teenaged characters in the novel.
Little Womenhad been adapted several times into feature films and was recently made into a BBC miniseries that aired late last year. But the most popular adaptation wasGillian Armstrong’s 1994 adaptation starring yet another who’s who of teen “It Kids,“Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst, andClaire Danes. This new cast led by Ronan and Chalamet would certainly live up to the greatness of the ‘94 cast — especially Chalamet, whose gorgeous mane would definitely rival Bale’s floppy hair.
But I do slightly worry over the “retelling” aspect of this classic story. I’m not sure ifLittle Womenis suited to a modern remake — just look at thecheesy trailer for the modernLittle Womenthat’s hitting theaters later this year. But at it’s heart,Little Womenis a tender coming-of-age story, and no one is better at coming-of-age stories than Gerwig. So perhaps aLittle Women"retelling” wouldn’t be so bad after all.
