Dickensblog

R.I.P. Richard Williams

The 86-year-old animator, who passed away on Friday, won an Academy Award for his 1971 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, in which Alastair Sim reprised his role as Ebenezer Scrooge.

More good news for 'Copperfield'

The Personal History of David Copperfield will be a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as a special presentation in September! This is the second prestigious film festival to announce that it will show the film (you'll recall that the BFI London Film Festival announced it last month). 

In other Copperfield news, Lionsgate UK, the British distributors of the film, have partnered with BBC Children in Need for a fundraising effort. "Secondary schools will be invited to download an exclusive 30 minute version of the film script . . . [which] will provide an opportunity for students to build on their acting skills and self-confidence whilst raising money for BBC Children in Need by selling tickets to peers, teachers and parents to come and watch their performance." Read more here. 

'A Christmas Carol' at the TCA

Members of the new A Christmas Carol production talked to critics at the Television Critics Association's press tour this week. Writer Steven Knight said of Guy Pearce's Scrooge, “I didn’t want him to look like his soul because his soul is pretty wretched. . . . But on the outside he’s okay and what I wanted to do is to have an audience say to themselves why is this person like this . . . and I hope that in the three hours we explore the reasons behind what Ebenezer Scrooge is, why has he become this person.” Read more here and here.

Exciting news!

Well, it's exciting for me, and I hope it will be for you too! :-) 

I've signed with Plough Publishing House to do The Gospel in Dickens for their book series "The Gospel in Great Writers." The book is currently scheduled to be released in late 2020. Like previous books in the series, this book will consist of excerpts from the author's work, plus commentary from the editor (in this case, me). 

I've long wanted to write a book on Dickens. In this case, you could say that Dickens and I are co-writing the book. I hope he'd be pleased with my contribution!

Mr. Dickens watching me sign the contract. (Photo copyright Joyce Dalfonzo)

R.I.P. Rutger Hauer

The 75-year-old actor passed away last Friday. His final role will be the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the upcoming BBC miniseries of A Christmas Carol.

The Lost Portrait goes home

The Dickens Museum has raised enough money to purchase Margaret Gillies's "Lost Portrait" of Dickens! It will be on regular display in the Museum, beginning in October.

'Copperfield' will open the BFI London Film Festival

Armando Iannucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield has been chosen to lead off the prestigious festival on October 2. Festival director Tricia Tuttle praised the film's "joyous sense of style" and its "celebration of the power of generosity and compassion." The Evening Standard has more!

TCM alert

If you should happen to have insomnia tonight, you can always catch A Tale of Two Cities (1935), airing at 3:45 a.m. Eastern!

Oliver Twiss and Martin Guzzlewit

We've all heard of the widespread literary plagiarism and piracy in Dickens's time, but a new biography of publisher Edward Lloyd suggests that it was even more widespread than we knew. Biographer Rohan McWilliam explains, “What’s particularly interesting is that many Victorian readers may have first encountered Dickens not through his own work, but through one of these imitations. There were many titles produced, which indicate that they were incredibly popular. And in some ways the plagiarisms could be seen as the original form of fan fiction, as they took familiar characters and did different things with them.” For more on Oliver Twiss and other plagiarisms of Dickens, go here.

'Scrooged' revisited

Kevin Hart plans to produce and star in a remake of Scrooged, the 1998 Christmas Carol update starring Bill Murray. I didn't care for what little I saw of the Murray film, so who knows, maybe this version will be an improvement!