Recent/Upcoming Gothic Adaptations
As our 2018 Conference CFP mentions, 2018 is a landmark year for Victorian authors and 21st century fans who inherit a continuing fascination with the Gothic. Not only did Mary Shelley publish Frankenstein, her gruesome tale of a scientifically resuscitated corpse brought back to life, in 1818, but also Yorkshire novelist Emily Brontë was born in this year - the natural way - and wrote Wuthering Heights in 1847.
While the academic world rushes to conduct, finalize, and present research this year at various conferences, and scholars prepare undergraduate and graduate seminars on the Gothic, filmmakers have been creating several responses of their own to the Gothic legacy. Dozens of 20th century filmic adaptations exist, the last being Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein (1994). So far, the 21st century has already produced a few responses to the novel, most notably the Hallmark mini-series Frankenstein (2004), starring Alec Newman and Luke Goss, which was well-received as a faithful adaptation of the book, and I, Frankenstein (2014), starring Aaron Eckhart, occurring several years after the events of the novel.
Recently, ITV's series The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015-) appeared on Netflix, starring Sean Bean, a detective mini-series loosely based on the events of Frankenstein and containing Mary Shelley and Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace as characters. Victor Frankenstein (2015) starred James McAvoy as Victor and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor, his hunchbacked assistant, in an adaptation that strayed far from the text in focusing on the scientific pair's obsessive work while sidelining the creature, dubbed "Prometheus." Frankenstein received its newest film adaptation in 2015, with director Bernard Rose's offering. Starring Carrie-Ann Moss and Danny Huston as Elizabeth and Victor Frankenstein and Xavier Samuel as the Creature "Adam," this modern retelling remained true to the general plot and spirit of the original, while incorporating 21st century elements.
On 25 May 2018, the film Mary Shelley (directed by Haifaa al-Mansour) will appear in US cinemas, starring Elle Fanning and Douglas Booth in the story of how the author of Frankenstein found her own voice as a female author in her own right. As the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), and whose birth resulted in Mary's premature death, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley grew up to have her own painful experiences with seduction, childbirth, sexual infidelity, and widowhood, all of which informed her work and inspired her to transcend her gendered circumstances.
Turning to the Brontës, real-life couple Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy, sporting rough appearances and attempted Northern English accents, appeared in Coky Giedroyc's Wuthering Heights (2009) adaptation for ITV. The most recent film of Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold in 2011 saw James Howson as Heathcliff and Kaya Scodelario as Cathy Earnshaw, in a gripping and controversial adaptation due to Heathcliff being black. Two recent adaptations of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre have appeared, one a 2006 BBC One miniseries starring Ruth Wilson, Toby Stephens, and directed by Susanna White, the other a film directed by Cary Fukunaga with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Directed by Sally Wainright, BBC One's To Walk Invisible (2017), a biographical film of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë's difficult path to authorhood amidst their brother Branwell's increasing alcoholism, boasted excellent scenery, convincing accents and attire, and benefitted from a screenplay that incorporated much of what scholars have uncovered concerning the family's secrets.
Another Gothic adaptation from a different Victorian author is also upcoming, the new BBC miniseries of Wilkie Collins's dark thriller The Woman in White (2018), starring Ben Hardy, Jessie Buckley, Dougray Scott and Charles Dance. Based on a novel of illusions and disillusions, gas-lighting and patriarchal abuse, madness and connivance, this adaptation is a timely reminder that Victorians recognized and discussed "modern" issues still hotly debated today.
As you hold Gothic film events at school or movie nights in your home with friends and family, we hope you will view some of these recent and upcoming adaptations, argue over them, discuss which Gothic adaptations you would like to see, formulate your own theories, write your own screenplays, and benefit generally from the symbiotic relationship between the world of reading and literary scholarship and the world of film!
