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Literary Classics Contemporized in Film

I was watching Adrian Lyne's directorial debut Foxes [1980], and I was surprised to learn this was a contemporary take on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women — complete with all the teenage hijinks of the 1980s, so very unlike the source material. I wondered how many other films out there are contemporary retreads of literary classics. This list is an effort to dig deep into that question. It omits film adaptations that take place within the same period as the literary original.

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  • 10 Things I Hate About You
  • A.I. Artificial Intelligence
  • Ad Astra
  • Affluenza
  • Aisha
  • Almayer's Folly
  • Anna
  • Antigone
  • Anyone But You
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Austenland
  • The Bad Sleep Well
  • Band of Robbers
  • Beau Travail
  • Big Business
  • Big Man on Campus
  • Bride & Prejudice
  • Bridget Jones's Diary
  • Can't Buy Me Love
  • Carmen
  • Carmen Jones
  • Carol for Another Christmas
  • Cléo from 5 to 7
  • Clueless
  • Coriolanus
  • Crime + Punishment in Suburbia
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Crime of Padre Amaro
  • Cruel Intentions
  • Cymbeline
  • Die, Mommie, Die!
  • Dil Se..
  • Dorian Gray
  • Easy A
  • Educating Rita
  • An Education
  • Edward II
  • Enemy
  • The Exit Room
  • Eyes Wide Shut
  • The Fallen Angel
  • Forbidden Planet
  • Foxes
  • Fire Island
  • Fish Tank
  • Frankenhooker
  • Frankenstein Unbound
  • Frankenweenie
  • From Prada to Nada
  • G
  • Get Over It
  • Godspell
  • Golden Baby
  • Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela
  • Great Expectations
  • Gulliver's Travels
  • Haider
  • The Half of It
  • Hamlet
  • Hamlet
  • Hamlet Goes Business
  • He's All That
  • Hedda
  • Hollow Man
  • The Hours
  • The House of Bernarda Alba
  • House of Usher
  • The Hungry
  • I Am Love
  • I Am Not Madame Bovary
  • I Walked with a Zombie
  • I Will Wait for You in Heaven
  • The Idiot
  • John Tucker Must Die
  • King Lear
  • Kiss Me Kate
  • Kiss Me, Kate
  • Kiss Me, Kate
  • Lady Macbeth
  • Love at First Bite
  • Love Likes Coincidences
  • Love's Labour's Lost
  • Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N.
  • The Man I Love
  • Malice in Wonderland
  • The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
  • Maqbool
  • Material Girls
  • Medea
  • Men Of Respect
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • A Midsummer Night's Rave
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • My Kingdom
  • My Name Is Tanino
  • My Own Private Idaho
  • Nayak: The Real Hero
  • Nayak The Real Hero
  • No Name on the Bullet
  • Norte, the End of History