Anne of Green Gables: A New (and Ghastly) Beginning
Kevin Sullivan needs to be stopped. Now. He's clearly just a frustrated AU fan fic writer who should confine his efforts to fanfiction.net. Anne fans of the world need to stop encouraging the man in his delusions. After Anne 3, poor LM Montgomery must have been spinning in her grave at the non-existent resemblance between Sullivan's Anne and Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.
I have loved Anne of Green Gables since I was a child. When Sullivan did his first Anne of Green Gables with Megan Follows, I adored it. When he did the sequel, even though it deviated in many ways from the novels written by Montgomery, there was still enough Anneishness and canon in there to make me happy.
By the time he got to Anne 3 (Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story) however, my horror was complete. An Anne of Green Gables movie starring a Daddo was already horrific enough but what was more horrifying was that the screenplay was not based upon Montgomery's works. Sullivan merely used Montgomery's characters in a completely 'original' World War I story by Sullivan and Laurie Pearson. What pissed me off was that Montgomery had written an Anne novel set in that same period, being Rilla of Ingleside and that would have made a fabulous movie as Anne was a mother whose two oldest sons were fighting in Europe and her daughters were keeping the home fires burning.
In Anne 3, however, Anne (childless), goes on a ridiculous quest to find her husband, Gilbert Blythe, who has become a doctor and has disappeared behind enemy lines. Along the way she even dresses up as a nun as she goes behind enemy lines. I almost cried it was so bad :)
Imagine my horror when a friend of the Canadian told me that Sullivan was at it again. That's right, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning is yet another screenplay that has emerged completely out of Kevin Sullivan's fevered brain. Barbara Hershey plays the adult Anne Shirley. Shirley MacLaine plays the matriarch Amelia Thomas. Oh noes. Say it isn't so!?! The synopsis makes me want to cry.
Synopsis: From the moment Anne Shirley arrived at Green Gables, she has captured the imagination and hearts of fans worldwide. But what shaped Anne into the loveable and quirky individual she is known to be?
Now in her sixties, a disheartened Anne looks back on her early years in an attempt to draw inspiration. Lost beneath the floorboards of Green Gables, secrets are discovered that illuminate the troubled childhood and heartbreaking sorrow of Anne’s early years.
As the daughter of a schoolteacher, Anne Shirley often finds herself lost in daydreams of literary worlds. However, Anne embarks on an adventure of her own when an accident devastates her family and casts her into the world as a forgotten orphan. Full of sorrow, Anne undergoes much relocation while battling cruelty, insecurity and despair.
Along her travels Anne finds the most unlikely friends; an institutionalised old man, a powerful businesswoman, a hopeless widow, and a man seeking to become a father to her. Just as things appear to brighten for Anne, she realises she is a pawn in a legal battle.
Only by accepting her past can Anne gather enough hope to face to future. Distant memories are the key to Anne embracing her life, and realising how remarkable it is.
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It's like a kind of hell, isn't it? Yet rabid Anne fans all over the world keep pouring their money and support into Sullivan Entertainment and he's running out of control.
The auditions for the new Anne were held at youtube.
Selected for the part was twelve-year old Hannah Endicott-Douglas, a Canadian who was born and raised in Toronto.
I'm not saying that she doesn't look the part, but the story, my dears, the story!
Then we have Barbara Hersey playing Older And Embittered Anne Shirley. WTF?
This Violetta, played by Endicott's real life sister. Yay nepotism.
See more here.
I asked if Anne fans worldwide were rising up in outrage and fury at this latest shame but apparently most fans have been largely supportive.
Clearly they are all smoking crack. :P
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I can't wait to read the interviews with the stars.
Interviewer: So did you ever read the Anne books?
Star: Yes, I loved them so much! I read all of them! Anne was such a role model to me!
Interviewer: So how do you feel about starring in a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with the books you love so much?
Star: Errr.
Interviewer: How do you feel about working for a director who is clearly a frustrated fan fic writer?
Star: Errrr.