I'm using my blog as a good place to store my research for my Fiction Adaptation essay, so I don't lose it. Below is a summary of the research I carried out:
TV/Film Sources:
And Then There Were None: Series 1, Episode 1. (2015) BBC One: 26 December. 21:00hrs
And Then There Were None: Series 1, Episode 2. (2015) BBC One: 27 December. 21:00hrs
And Then There Were None: Series 1, Episode 3. (2015) BBC One: 28 December. 21:00hrs
Family Guy- And Then There Were Fewer: Series 9, Episode 1. (2010) FOX: 26 September. 22:00hrs
Family Guy- Blue Harvest: Series 6, Episode 1. (2007) FOX: 23 September. 22:00hrs
Family Guy- Something, Something, Something, Dark Side: Series 8, Episode 20. (2010) FOX: 23 May. 22:00hrs
Family Guy- It’s A Trap: Series 9, Episode 18. (2011) FOX: 22 May. 22:00hrs
Clue (1985) Directed by Jonathan Lynn [DVD] USA: PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Online Sources:
1. Conlan, T. (2015) ‘BBC’s And Then There Were None puts a darker spin on Agatha Christie’ In: The Guardian [online] At: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/13/bbc-and-then-there-were-none-agatha-christie (Accessed on 01.11.16)
2. Travis, B. (2015) ‘And Then There Were None, BBC1: four things you need to know about the Agatha Christie adaptation’ In: Evening Standard [online] At: http://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/and-then-there-were-none-bbc1-four-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-agatha-christie-adaptation-a3144051.html (Accessed on 01.11.16)
3. Chan, C. (s.d) 10 Things You Didn’t Know About And Then There Were None. At: http://www.agathachristie.com/watch/and-then-there-were-none/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-and-then-there-were-none (Accessed on 01.11.16)
4. SparkNotes Editors. (s.d) SparkNote on And Then There Were None: Themes, Motifs & Symbols. At: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/andthenthere/themes.html (Accessed on 01.11.16)
5. Novel Guide. (s.d) And Then There Were None: Theme Analysis. At: http://www.novelguide.com/and-then-there-were-none/theme-analysis (Accessed on 01.11.16)
6. IMDB. (s.d) And Then There Were Fewer. At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610751/ (Accessed on 01.11.16)
7. IMDB. (s.d) Clue. At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088930/ (Accessed on 01.11.16)
8. Kaminska, B. (2011) Full Analysis of The Family Guy. At: http://thefamilyguyanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/normal-0-21-false-false-false-pl-x-none.html (Accessed on 01.11.16)
9. Ryan, J. (2015) Where Are Those Good Old Fashioned Values? Family Guy and Satire in Family Guy. At: http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6582&context=etd (Accessed on 01.11.16)
10. Stein, S. (2016) ‘Mystery’ In: The Paris Review [online] At: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/02/05/mystery/ (Accessed on 01.11.16)
11. IMDB. (s.d) And Then There Were None. At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3581932/ (Accessed on 01.11.16)
Book Sources-
Christie, Agatha (2007) And Then There Were None. UK: HarperCollins
Key Points-
1.
· To reference quotes from this text: (Phelps 2015, cited in Conlan, 2015)
· Screenwriter Sarah Phelps said “This book is genuinely terrifying … nobody is coming to save you … no dapper Belgian detective, no twinkly-eyed and steely spinster is going to arrive and unravel it”.
· Phelps says the audience should be prepared for something much darker “that gets that little vulnerable spot in your brain and goes (mimes turning something)”
· Phelps said the book, which she had not read before. “profoundly shocker” her and is more “terrifying and brutal” than she expected”.
· It is “searing” in the same way as Scandinavian dramas such as The Killing and The Bridge are, in contrast to other dramas that use death as an entertaining plot device.
· Phelps also wrote the 2011 adaptation of Great Expectations, which was celebrated.
· Phelps explains “Whenever we think of Murder She Wrote, Midsummer Murders, Poirot, Marple, [it’s] murder as entertainment – teatime entertainment – isn’t that weird? Those shows are kind of ‘Argh, I’ve been killed with a letter opener to the eye’, it’s [about] the unravelling of the plot and the life is irrelevant. In this book you take all that, murder as entertainment, and you turn it on its head [and say] ‘this is an abomination, this is the wrath of God’. What this does, and the Scandi dramas do, is they go, ‘This is what murder is. Murder is an absolutely horrific crime. You have taken a life.”
· Phelps also translated JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy to the small screen in 2014.
· She said “When I was writing I kept thinking of the Greeks, thinking of the remorselessness and the poem as actually a Greek chorus: ‘You’re not going anywhere, you’re pinned, you’re fixed, here is the eye of God, it doesn’t blink, look at you squirm.’ It’s terrifying.”
· “I think this book has a worrying purity to it because of the beauty of the plot. And there’s a real dark, murky, curious, difficult undertone which just makes you think about what it means to take a life”
· “There is something else … the most forensic examination of guilt, transgression.”
· Phelps did change the ending of The Casual Vacancy, but says it was important to stay faithful to Christie’s plot and “not do something like Big Brother”, keeping the author’s principle that death “had to mean something”.
· “You have to be faithful to Christie because she’s making you think about really important moral points”.
· She has however “ramped up” some elements: “Everyone in the book is quite polite and clipped. They’re a whole lot less so in the adaptation because I kept thinking ‘what would you do if you were on an island and people kept dying?’. I think I’d be bouncing off the walls at some point”
· She also made some changes to how characters die, or where they die, purely for plot reasons.
· And of course as per usual, the producers had some influence on the adaptation, as they would not allow her to use the word ‘cunt’ in the script, saying a producer said “Sarah, it’s Christmas. We’re not having ‘cunt’ at Christmas”.
2.
· And Then There Were None is widely regarded as one of her most ingenious works – packed with revelations, murders, and social commentary, with a puzzling mystery at its core.
· This must be one of the BBC’s best-looking series of the year – the whole production glowers as foreboding wide shots and sumptuous landscapes give the impression of very bad things to come. The atmosphere is brilliantly maintained, with the tension ramping up as you question who might be bumped off next.
3.
· Agatha Christie was compelled to write ‘And Then There Were None’ because it was such a difficult plot to write effectively that the idea fascinated her. The story line went through massive rewrites before she was ready to write it.
· As Christie worked on the stage adaptation of ATTWN, she decided to change the ending to a 'happier' one where characters survive and fall in love, because as the play was being performed during WWII, she thought that the original ending would have been far too bleak.
· ATTWN is arguably Christie's most parodied work. Some examples include a Superman comic book that borrowed heavily from Christie's plot and the animated television series Family Guy which produced a parody titled 'And Then There Were Fewer'.
· Some film adaptations have set the story on a mountaintop chalet, the Iranian desert, and on an African safari. However, the 1945 film kept the setting of an island off the coast of England.
· Voted the World’s Favourite Christie in a global vote across 100 countries in 2015.
4.
· Key themes explored by ‘And Then There Were None’:
o The Administration of Justice
o The Effects of Guilt on One’s Conscience
o The Danger of Reliance on Class Distinctions
· Motifs:
o The “Ten Little Solider Boys” Poem
o Dreams and Hallucinations
· Symbols:
o The Storm
o The Mark on Judge Wargrave’s Forehead
o Food
· This source also has some good information on the context of the book.
5.
· Other themes explored by ‘And Then There Were None’:
o Guilt
o Concealment
o Justice
o Suspicion
6.
· And Then There Were Fewer has an 8.3/10 rating on IMDB.
· It was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong.
· It was directed by Dominic Polcino.
· Partly based on the 1985 film ‘Clue’, as well as the Agatha Christie novel ‘And Then There Were None’.
7.
· Clue has a 7.3/10 rating on IMDB.
· Directed by Jonathan Lynn
· Written by Jonathan Lynn
· Based on the board game Cluedo
8.
· Explores the key principles of transmedia in Family Guy:
o Spreadability vs. drillability
o Continuity vs. multiplicity
o Immersion vs. extractability
o Worldbuilding
o Seriality
o Subjectivity
o Performance
9.
· Looks at:
o The history of animation
o Family Guy’s anarchic essence
o Parodies & satires
10.
· The original book was released in the UK with the title ‘Ten Little Niggers’. It was later republished with the new title ‘Ten Little Indians’.
· However, in the US the original title was considered too offensive, so the book was released with the title ‘Ten Little Indians’.
11.
· The BBC adaptation of ‘And Then There Were None’ has a rating of 8.1/10 on IMDB.
· Based on the book by Agatha Christie. Adapted for screen by Sarah Phelps.
· Directed by Craig Viveiros, Basi Akpabio, Rebecca Keane.
· First major English adaptation to give the General his original surname, MacArthur. Earlier screen and stage adaptations changed it to MacKenzie or Mandrake, to avoid referencing WWII hero, General Douglas MacArthur.
· This is the first version where Anthony Marston’s victims are children, like in the book. In other versions he has also be changed to a Russian Prince (1945), a pop singer (1965), and a French crooner (1974).
· This is the first and only English adaptation of the story which follows the ending from the book. All previous productions follow the stage play version, which was a happier ending where the final two characters survive.
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