Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Discuss the television and film adaptations of Enid Blyton's stories.
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Lucky Star
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Lucky Star »

Exciting news indeed but I'm afraid I really cannot see them doing a real, proper period adaptation of one of the books. It will probably be modernised and "sexed up" to appeal to the broadest possible cross section of today's audience.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Deej »

I think it's a good article and I am quite excited about the prospect of a FF film. Working Titles is by no means a Hollywood production company. It usually produces award-winning films on low budget. Shaun of the Dead and This Is England stand out for me.
I know they're different to FF but I think they'll make a good film out of it. Anything that keeps Blyton's name going into the 21st century and beyond has to be a good thing for me. I'm quite excited at seeing a more modern version of Blyton's work in film format.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by lizarfau »

Shaun of the Dead is a great movie. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, given I'm not into zombies at all. I agree - Working Title usually do good stuff. Hopefully they'll do this one well, too.

They produced Nanny McPhee, which I suppose is a bit closer to Blyton than, say, Shaun of the Dead! My favourite Working Title movie is Love Actually, which I watch every Christmas.

Maybe Emma Thompson, who scripted Nanny McPhee, will work on the FF?
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It's interesting to hear people's thoughts.
Lucky Star wrote:Exciting news indeed but I'm afraid I really cannot see them doing a real, proper period adaptation of one of the books. It will probably be modernised and "sexed up"...
I've seen the first two of the Famous Five films which were made recently in Germany, and they were modern but still very watchable. However, I assume Working Title are planning to do something a bit different (maybe staying closer to the original books?) - otherwise why not simply release the German films over here, with English dubbing?
lizarfau wrote:Working Title usually do good stuff... They produced Nanny McPhee, which I suppose is a bit closer to Blyton than, say, Shaun of the Dead!... Maybe Emma Thompson, who scripted Nanny McPhee, will work on the FF?
I don't remember the first Nanny McPhee film very well, based on Christianna Brand's "Nurse Matilda" books. As a family we thought it was okay, but nothing special. However, we were very impressed indeed with the sequel, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, which I believe was an original story by Emma Thompson. It's a lovely Second World War film with plenty of period detail, pathos and humour - and some parts put me in mind of Enid Blyton's "Six Cousins" books. A Famous Five film capturing something of the same atmosphere, set in the right period, would be wonderful.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Moonraker »

Are we talking about a film for the cinema - or a TV movie? If a film for general release, I would thing a German film dubbed into English would be very successful. I simply hate dubbed films - the lips are all out of sync and it smacks of amateurishness to me. Of course subtitles wouldn't work either, I can't imagine a group of English children speaking in German in WWII!
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The German Famous Five films are set in the 21st century! :lol: I don't mind dubbing, but that's probably because when I was growing up there were lots of European programmes shown on children's TV in Britain, dubbed into English from German or French or other languages, so I got used to it. I particularly remember Heidi, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, The Boy From Lapland, White Horses and Princess Goldenhair. Are European children's dramas still shown on TV here, I wonder? I don't remember my own children watching any when they were younger.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Francis »

The exposure to European classic stories is far less today than it was years ago - British children's
television is much more insular (apart for American influences).
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Petermax »

It will interesting to see what shape and form this proposed new film will take. A nice cinematic adaptation of Five on a Treasure Island would be nice. I still say that the 1990's HTV TV series excelled with their adaptation of this book, although subsequent episodes sometimes fell short of the mark.

I wonder if Working Title are proposing a whole series of Famous Five films along the lines of the Harry Potter franchise? One film per year for approximatley 22 years could prove to be difficult though, so perhaps not! :lol:
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Wolfgang »

There really seems to be a run on the Famous Five lately. There's a fourth German Film coming, Oscar Spain had also been interested in making a Famous Five film (I suppose he was competing with the German producers and lost, in the commentaries of the first German Film there was a hint that they had to convince the right holders of their qualities), now again a series is planned and a musical. As if there wasn't enough different material to make a series or films.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Soenke Rahn »

So now I got the information also in Germany that there will come definitely an English film. There is also an article in Blickpunkt film. There are also namend Eric Fellner Tim Bevan in the article as the producers. :-)
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by John Pickup »

I would welcome a cinema version of the Famous Five but not if they were all toting mobile phones. Surely a film would work set in the period it was written.
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Soenke Rahn »

In the first German film were also mobile phones, and in this case it worked, but you are right mobiles are a difficult question ...
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Colette »

I've only JUST seen this article :oops: Exciting!!.. but what will it be like??

That said I thoroughly enjoyed the 90s TV series... but as an adult I find it a lot less 'good' then i remembered! I do still thoroughly enjoy the New Zealand Adventure adaptations though (Penguin Island aside. Huh.)

I agree with Poppy: I'd love, love, love to see an adaptation of the Find Outers. I recently bought a FFO book with actual people depicted on the front and thought perhaps an adaptation had passed me by.. They're so good, I think they'd work really well. Same for the R books really. Oh, lets be honest, any bad adaptation is nothing to do with Enid's writing

I'll totally be going to see this though :D
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Katharine »

I've only just seen this as well. So many comments rushing through my head, where do I start?

Firstly, I'm not going to get too excited, as I didn't think either of the TV series were particularly good, so won't hold my breath that it will be right this time either.

Secondly, 'Enid Blyton being called the J. K. Rowling of her day???????' :evil: No way. I'm a great fan of the HP books, but there are only 7 of those, and they follow the characters as they grow up. As far as I'm aware, JKR has only written a handful of other books, EB wrote 100s of stories, books, plays, nature articles etc. etc. Her series of books hardly mentioned her characters growing up, and as far as I know, none of her stories dealt with such dark issues as the HP books did. Anyway, surely JKR should be compared with EB, not the other way around, as EB came first?

I have my reservations about the company concerned. I like the film Love Actually, but I would hope none of the FF books will have that kind of storyline! :wink: I quite like the first Nanny McPhee film, but only saw the second one a few weeks ago. Admittedly I didn't watch all of it, but I didn't like what I did see. There was one scene with a couple of revolting pantomime dame type characters attacking a man in a kitchen. I can't remember now exactly what happened, but I found it so distasteful, that I've told my 8 year old she's not to watch it any more. I hope they don't give the FF the same treatment.

I generally like Emma Thompson though, so it would be great if she could perhaps be Aunt Fanny? If they manage to bring Colin Firth into the films as well, then I'd forgive them for any alterations to the text. :lol:
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Re: Guardian Article on Famous Five film

Post by Courtenay »

Katharine wrote:If they manage to bring Colin Firth into the films as well, then I'd forgive them for any alterations to the text. :lol:
Especially if he gets his shirt wet?? :D :D :D
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