With Tim Burton’s new visually-stunning take on Alice in Wonderland well on its way, it appears that another beloved childhood tale could be on its way to a cinematic treatment: Little Red Riding Hood.
Leonardo DiCaprio‘s production company, Appian Way, has acquired the rights to develop a new feature film based on the fabled tale of a young girl dressed in red who is trying to get to her sick grandmother’s house with a vicious wolf hot on her trail. The story is said to date back to the middle ages; it was first published by the Brothers Grimm, who were portrayed by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in the Terry Gilliam movie of the same name.
This new take on Red Riding Hood is supposedly going to be a Gothic-styled re-telling, which could work beautifully. The oldest versions of the story sometimes featured a werewolf instead of just a regular wolf. One of the stories even ended with the wolf actually eating Red in a gruesome and depressing finale. It will be really interesting to see how dark they actually want to go with this.
Not that the above-mentioned Alice is a fairy tale per-say, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see a lot more — if not all — of our favorite childhood stories getting a new and modern movie treatment. Fairy tales could just be the new superheroes, and I kinda like the idea of seeing them told in live-action fashion through the eyes of the right directors, especially in a darker manner.
Then there’s the chance that they just go ahead and make a movie based on the fantastic Bill Willingham graphic novel, Fables. That would cover the whole lot of ’em in a darker fashion than most could comprehend.
What do you guys think? Is this something you’d be interested in seeing, and would you be okay with other beloved stories getting this kind of makeover?
[Source: Variety]
Already saw the live-action ‘Little Red Ridding Hood’. It’s called ‘Freeway’ with Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon. :)
-xero-
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I think that this might just the new fad of Hollywood – fairy tales and children’s classics with a dark or interesting twist. I’ve always wanted them to take this route with movies, and its finally happening. SUPER excited!
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I still enjoy the movie Company of Wolves, co-written by Angela Carter and based on her dark-fantasy feminist retelling of Grimm Fairy Tales.
Any writers of the movie should also check out the art-game The Path.
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Personally I just think it’s a little weird that you even need to “acquire the rights” to fairy tales!
It could be interesting, though… a nice remedy to all the sugar-coated disney stuff and the disney parodies like Shrek.
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This is awesome iv been waiting for some good fairy tales that arent just for little kids, i luv the whole idea of dark gothic tales so im super excited
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I hope no one ever attempts to convert bill willingham’s FABLES into film form. So much of the comic would be lost on film. :(
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