Movieacados! This week we step back to the, well not future, but the near present as we have a new wide release that got me thinking. This week Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is released and it actually looks interesting to me for a few reasons. The first is that it is an adaptation of something I have had an interest in for some time and have actually read. The second is I have a pretty big affinity for all kinds of classic stories from The Odyssey to Miyamoto Musashi, from Homer to Shakespeare, Glooscap (local indigenous) to Paul Bunyon and so on. There is a lot to learn and be entertained by. And third, it looks like the kind of thing I would watch regardless of director.

Adaptations allows us to either pay homage to the source material, remaining faithful to the original creator’s vision, or maybe do an updated version where it is The Taming of the Shrew but it takes place at a high school for some reason (and still totally works), or why not both, or some mixture that incorporates new ideas while respecting the original and still making a great movie, I have seen several like that and it lands great every time it happens. And quite possibly the best thing about modern adaptations of classic material is that it may get people interested in the classics, I know I am possibly being too optimistic here but that is how it worked for me and watching Kurosawa films, some of which actually count for this week’s topic. I watched a few adaptations of Seven Samurai and decided to go for the original and I had a friend who was cast as Lady Macbeth and in order to prepare she watched all kinds of adaptations including Throne of Blood.

At the end of the day not all adaptations of classic works will be good, but there can be something for anyone to enjoy regardless, so today’s prompt is what is your favourite movie/moment adapted from classic works? This is of course very subjective as I grew up in the 80s so a lot of movies and songs I enjoyed in my youth are now considered classics but either way enjoy and have fun with this week.