Rocio Mateos
If you’re an ‘Anne of Green Gables’ fan, you should be excited about Netflix’s new series. If you’re not, well, sit back, enjoy ‘Annie with an E,’ and feel welcome to the sisterhood.
‘Annie with an E’ is based on the classic novel, written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The new Netflix Original series stars Amybeth McNulty, and was created by Moira Walley-Beckett, who won an Emmy for her amazing work on ‘Breaking Bad.’
The story revolves around an aging brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who decide to adopt a boy, so he could help them with the work on their farm. A mix-up occurs, and they are instead granted a girl – one with lots of freckles, an intense red hair, a big mouth and very strong opinions that even shock Marilla. However, they decide to give her a chance. From there, we get to know little Anne and her ways to interact with unfamiliar surroundings, new people, and a totally new life on Prince Edward Island.
The first book was published in 1908 but later turned into seven more books filled with Anne’s adventures. Ever since then, there have been a countless amount of adaptations, including plays, radio dramas, films, television movies, a musical, and now, a series available on streaming.
In the series, 15-year-old actress Amybeth McNulty plays the part of Anne Shirley, the main character of the story. She has stage experience and battled a long fight to get the part. As for Marilla Cuthbert, she will be portrayed by Geraldine James, who has been nominated for the Bafta four times. She has appeared in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ ‘Rogue One,’ and was nominated for a Tony award for her performance in ‘The Merchant of Venice.’
Robert Holmes “R. H.” Thomson will be playing Matthew Cuthbert, Marilla’s shy brother. He has experience in ‘Anne of Green Gables’ performances since he played Jasper Dale in ‘Road to Avonlea,’ one of the sequels of the main novel.
‘Anne with an E’ producer talks about how she conceived the idea
The producer of the Emmy-winning series ‘Breaking Bad,’ Moira Walley-Beckett, now embraces this new project with a softer subject, based on a book that most of the people feel passionate about, including herself.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said that she read the book when she was young – several times, in a row. She felt just like Anne: awkward and outsider; but the red headed gave her the strength to be unique and passionate and different.
Walley-Beckett’s producing partner, Miranda de Pencier came up with the idea of bringing ‘Anne of Green Gables’ back to life. They discussed how it would be portrayed, and realized that “it was absolutely timeless, timely, and topical.” CBC developed the project with them, and she wrote the first two-hour episode. Based on that episode, the broadcasting corporation ordered it to series for eight hours of television. It was later on that Netflix heard about it and acquired it, so the show went into production.
The series is a bit darker than you would expect
‘Anne with an E’ debuted on Friday, May 12, and some say it is a darker, moodier adaptation of the young-adult novel. That’s what you’d expect from Walley-Beckett and her past with rather dark ‘Breaking Bad.’
In the story, it gets more than obvious that Anne is an abuse survivor, who fled from cruel foster parents and a jarring orphanage. But we get to know more about her and her past through flashbacks that explain her current personality, full of vanity, a strong temper, and grandiloquent monologs as a survival mechanism. However, for some, it is a downer, rather obscure, than the beloved light humor that characterizes the novel.
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