Classic Adaptation Quotes

I think that you can treat a classic like a museum piece -stuffed and mounted- or you can make it a living, breathing narrative that is unfolding right then and there.

It is a challenging task to adapt a book to screen presentation and you will not be able to satisfy those who read the classic novel.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think it's really important to remake things. If you never remake the classics, no one would know Shakespeare.

'Greek Street' is a very strange beast. I think of it as 'The Long Good Friday' meets 'Agamemnon.' A way of using those fantastically rich stories from Greek tragedy to take a look at our world and to explore some of the things I think about this world.

'Bloodless' reminded me a bit of 'Les Miserables' when it first came out.

We used to listen to Lionel Barrymore do 'A Christmas Carol' on the radio long ago, and I like Reginald Owen, who played Scrooge in the first treatment for the screen. But my favorite Scrooge was Alastair Sim. He was enchanting, an absolutely beautiful performance.

I like the idea of taking a true classic written by a true genius and essentially destroying it!

I didn't like The Wiz and it wasn't because black people were doing it. I didn't like The Wiz because it was a badly made movie off a classic. Why are you remaking something unless you have something better in mind?

I think classic films are classic for a reason. It's always sketchy to redo one, especially if you're trying to make it contemporary. That's really just not the way to go.

'Clueless' is an adaptation of 'Emma' by Jane Austen. It works either way: if you know the book and if you don't.

One of my favorite films is 1994's 'Little Women', with Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dunst.

Back in the 1950s and '60s, J. M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' - starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard - was regularly aired on network television during the Christmas season. I must have seen it four or five times and remember, in particular, Ritchard's gloriously camp interpretation of Captain Hook.

There's nothing wrong with the classic ways of adapting stuff.

I would love to do a sweeping romantic period drama, like Jane Eyre. That would be my dream. It's always been my dream, as far as acting.