There’s a remake on the way of George Orwell’s 1984, retold as a “a love story where love doesn’t exist”, starring Kristen Stewart. That plan exists and is real. I’m not sure why.
Perhaps the idea is to bring 1984 to a generation of youths who are unlikely to encounter Orwell’s story elsewhere. This is a silver lining the folks at Blastr have found. Hogwash, I say. Are you not reading 1984 in schools anymore, American High-School students? You should be.
Do we need Kristen Stewart now to operate as an entry-level interlocutor with our great works of 1950s literature? Did that work with On The Road, last year’s film adaptation of what is a strange, hilarious and unique reading experience that belongs on the page and not in poorly executed adaptations?
The real damned part of continuing to encounter these movie projects is that I am a fan Ms. Stewart. I’m one of the few people I’ve met who thinks she has an odd magic on-screen, who sees not vacancy in that stare but something more like untapped power suffused with melancholy. There’s a serious movie star in that stare, waiting for a chance to be given more than Twilight and Bella Swan.
Equals, the film will be titled, and it’s being made by Drake Doremus, who directed the very good Like Crazy. The film will pair the aforementioned Stewart with the always good Nicholas Hoult. There’s talent here. Hoult was in the surprising Warm Bodies, another remake that perhaps seemed ill-advised at the time.
Vogue says that Jennifer Lawrence, the reigning force of nature, read the script with Hoult and was moved to tears before deciding against the role. So who knows. Maybe this’ll come together.
But it probably won’t.
