It’s interesting to see how much liberty comes with the task of adapting classic works to film. Producer Michael De Luca (who has had his hand in just about every memorable movie of the past twenty years) is putting together Olivia Twisted, starring Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen from the Twilight films) as the title character.
Olivia Twist will be a retelling of Charles Dickens’ well-known story Oliver Twist. However, it will be told from the perspective of a female, instead of a male, lead. This does not inherently change anything; in fact, it contributes far more than it removes by enlisting a different point of view on the same course of events.
The changes continue, however—Greene is twenty-four, thus will be playing a character much older than the original Oliver. This does skew the story further, as it was about the experiences of a young orphan dealing with a homeless and parentless childhood.
Finally, Olivia is reported to be the leader of one of two warring gangs involved in deeds as foul as kidnapping. Clearly, this is a long journey from Dickens’ timeless hero.
That is not to say the film won’t be a good one. In fact, innovation is always something to be celebrated. It merely begs questions: at what point did this evolve from an Oliver Twist adaptation into something all its own? How much further from the original story will it evolve? And will there be anything in the movie like this?
Source: Variety (via Comingsoon)
