A Gre­ta Ger­wig adap­ta­tion of Lit­tle Women could be on its way

If the release of Lady Bird on home video in time for end­less sum­mer rewatch­es isn’t enough excite­ment, Vari­ety is report­ing that Gre­ta Ger­wig is con­tem­plat­ing a Lit­tle Women adap­ta­tion. The rumoured line-up of March sis­ters already seems too good to be true, with Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan and Flo­rence Pugh report­ed­ly set to join Meryl Streep and Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met among the prin­ci­pal cast.

Louisa May Alcott’s clas­sic 1869 nov­el has already received its fair share of cin­e­mat­ic treat­ments, from a now-lost 1917 British silent dra­ma to the Gillian Arm­strong-direct­ed ​’90s hit star­ring Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dun­st. Indeed, the project will be the fifth fea­ture adap­ta­tion of the work, set­ting Ger­wig up to fol­low in the foot­steps of direc­tors George Cukor and Mervyn Leroy. With her unique charm and emo­tion­al sen­si­bil­i­ty, she is sure to deliv­er a wor­thy version.

Lady Bird was a deeply per­son­al project for Ger­wig, although its themes of com­plex famil­ial rela­tion­ships and female self-explo­ration are sim­i­lar­ly preva­lent in Alcott’s writ­ing. The announce­ment of Gerwig’s inter­est may well have con­vinced Streep to con­firm her involve­ment as the eccen­tric Aunt March. The script will appar­ent­ly focus on the sis­ters’ young adult years, so expect frol­ics aplen­ty as Aunt March selects which niece to trav­el with her to Europe.

Few details of the project have been con­firmed at this point, but it appears that the film is def­i­nite­ly hap­pen­ing. For now we’re keep­ing every­thing crossed that we’ll get to see Ronan and Cha­la­met reunit­ed after their delight­ful per­for­mances in Lady Bird. There may be even more awk­ward romance on the cards, as Ronan will like­ly play the eldest sis­ter Jo, while Cha­la­met will take on the role of hope­less­ly smit­ten Lau­rie Laurence.

We think the film would make for a per­fect win­ter warmer – as Jo says in the book’s open­ing line, ​“Christ­mas won’t be Christ­mas with­out any presents”.