Jane's Concerns

The next day Jane sent me a message with her thoughts on our ideas telling us of her concerns about each one. This might not have seemed positive, but at least she was considering them all.

Ivor,

Could you respond to my queries about the 5 currently on the table.

1. Dream – It’s a play not a serial. Can’t see more than a few episodes here? Can you think of a couple more plays for a Shakespeare season? Are we going canon or ripping it up? Also, sacrilege?
2. KD – Nobody’s heard of it but I found out it’s a trilogy and the second book seems to concentrate on pious motherhood. How’s this going to work, Jacqui?
3. Decameron – how much would you play this as comedy, and can you 2 direct comedy?
4. Mm – heavyweight book, found it a bit dull at school, how would you spice it up? And this applies to VF as well, I feel production costs?
5. VF – Becky Sharp’s an icon, we really need a big actress and she needs to age convincingly while remaining hot, and perhaps glamorize the rest of the characters?

Bye

Jane

Hi Jane,

Good points all, so here’s our take:

1. Dream – I think sticking to a text + sex gives us 3 hours maybe more. If you can get a great writer then I’d happily collaborate with them. AYLI is a fine accompaniment as it’s set in a forest. Sex is easy in MND but AYLI I’ll find away around the cross dressing problems. 4 couples though!
2. KD – Jaqui has 2 options. Concertina the later books or just do the first and then if successful just use the setup for future series.
3. Decameron – Jaqui says to concentrate on the storytellers and we can certainly do saucy. The stories we can try different directors on, like an audition. Nuns and priests, nudge nudge.
4. Middlemarch – Trust us, we have ideas on this. No-one’s going to be bored. We could go to Prague but they used Stamford last time and it could work again.
5. VF – It struck me Emily Wilson could deliver again and Kate Bartlett might be able to step up as Amelia. I agree that a lot of the male characters are ugly or wet, so time to take some artistic licence. Don’t forget the opening scene at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies – we know how to do that!

XXX

Ivor & Jacqui

Shortly after Episode 6, Jane let me know her decision.