Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four Is Making Its Way to the Big Screen (Again)

March 23, 2012 | News

Get ready everyone– Big Brother will soon have its sight on you once again. That is not some sort political remark (I am a member of the Voter Apathy party), rather an announcement was made recently that yet another movie adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is in the works. Normally I’d roll my eyes at the notion of yet another remake, but I am cautiously excited about this one. The previous versions were not without their merits (John Hurt), but there is definitely room for improvement. Additionally, it has been almost twenty years since the last adaptation, which gives the subject matter a chance to feel fresh again. The time for such a remake could be just right.

Packing on the intrigue factor is that the movie has been taken on by Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment (a lot of cinematic cred there), with street artist Shepard Fairey potentially being taken on as a producer. It is unclear just how deep Fairey’s involvement in the project would be, but something about it gave me an idea: wouldn’t an animated version of Nineteen Eighty-Four be great? I’m not talking about creepy Polar Express-style animation, or even regular The Little Mermaid-style animation, but something darker and grittier (think 1953′s The Tell-Tale Heart). It would be turning the whole notion of a remake on its head by doing something with the book that hasn’t been done before. In that aspect, it wouldn’t even really be a remake. Chances are they will go with the more straight-forward live action approach (it’s a shame), but I will be intrigued to see how Imagine Entertainment is going to approach this. This adaptation has the potential to be very interesting.

Now that the news portion of this article is out of the way, it’s time to look at some book covers! (It is Friday, after all.) This week’s choice for book cover exploration is (naturally) Nineteen Eighty-Four.