Late last week, Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. has partnered with Scott McGehee and David Siegel (“Uncertainty,” “What Maisie Knew”) to create an all-female “Lord of the Flies” movie. The proposed drama marks a third adaptation of William Golding’s classic 1953 novel. The first two adaptations premiered in 1963 (dir. Peter Brook) and 1990 (dir. Harry Hook), and were mostly well-received. However, swaths of the Internet immediately sounded off on how spectacularly unnecessary this latest remake sounds.
Twitter was split, as usual, between apt criticisms and baldly sexist musings. Many were annoyed to see two men were in the works to write and direct the all-female script, even more believed that an all-female community would be antithetical to the iconic book, and a special few debated whether the movie’s protagonists would braid each other’s hair or sunbathe. Golding’s intentions for the novel have been exhaustively discussed. But is the real issue with this reboot that it may miss the mark, or is there something more insidious at play? Female representation in film is a fraught issue already, but this latest gender reversal feels like a cheap gimmick, raising broader questions as to Hollywood’s true motivations when funding all-female flicks. When sloppy adaptations are disproportionately favored by the industry, what original scripts are being left in the dust?
Many have taken to the social media to extol the virtues of women, their central thesis being that “Lord of the Flies” (in which a group of British schoolboys beat their schoolmate to death and set an entire island on fire) would never play out among female castaways. While this idea is equal parts tempting and charming, it’s clear that none of its proponents have ever found themselves in an all-girls’ schooling situation. Though women might form an island utopia — if “Wonder Woman” taught us anything — this movie will assumedly be about schoolgirls. And I certainly wouldn’t want to be trapped on an island with my middle school self, whose chief most hobbies included mocking other girls and devouring young adult novels about brutally classist private schools. What part of “Lord of the Flies” wouldn’t translate to an all-girls’ scenario, the cliques, the merciless mocking, or the fear-based aggression? It’s like “Mean Girls” castaways on an island. Sure, “Lord of the Flies” likely wouldn’t play out line for line in a group of girls, but the story’s central point about how humanity’s darkest and most savage impulses are not exclusive to adults remains. Girl survivors might not put a pig’s head on a stick to assert their dominance, but they would engage in serious social-emotional espionage. We’re talking suicide instead of homicide.
Instead, this all-female “Lord of the Flies” presents other gender dilemmas entirely. There are enough movies/TV shows/video games/books/cave drawings about the inherent corruption of girls, and it wouldn’t be particularly revolutionary or interesting to add a clumsy adaptation onto that teetering pile. Girls, particularly teenagers, are regularly painted as needlessly catty, emotionally volatile, and superficial to the point of villainy. See: every teen movie girl antagonist ever — Taylor from “She’s All That,” Chris from “Carrie,” Sharpay from “High School Musical,” etc. It might be cool to see a mainstream movie that really tackles the emotional complexities of girlhood, but that’s not going to be this “Lord of the Flies” film. For one, it’s a remake of a book adaptation, and writing a meaningful rendition of the novel’s themes with an all-female cast would require rewriting the novel itself. Plus, this will be yet another movie about teenage girls penned and directed by men. Want to guess what else “She’s All That,” “Carrie,” and “High School Musical” have in common?
It’s not that men can’t make films about women or girls, or that it’s impossible for them to do it well. But since the industry is overwhelmingly dominated by men (87% of directors, 87% of screenwriters, and 78% of producers in the top 700 films, per Variety), it’s high time to give female storytellers their due — especially when the film in question is about girls or women. Men are just as overrepresented in front of the camera as behind, so it should be thrilling to see a major studio take interest in an all-female script. That’s not the case when the script in question is likely a gimmicky, lazy adaptation penned and directed by men. While the recent trend of all-female remakes, from “Ghostbusters” to “Ocean’s 8,” is one to be cautiously celebrated, it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood cashes in on an interesting idea and turns it into a superficial fad. If the industry values dollars over actual human interest (which, if “The Emoji Movie” taught us anything, it does), all-female remakes will quickly descend into more hollow drivel. It doesn’t matter if the gender switch doesn’t make any sense, or is poorly executed because exploitation doesn’t have a social or artistic conscience.
And to digress a little, this latest “Lord of the Flies” news is one in a long line of egregious examples of how far the industry will go to avoid projects that are original and interesting. Studio filmmaking is in a creative drought, with good storytelling coming overwhelmingly from independent creators and festival circuits. When there are 13 original scripts by women and 15 original scripts with female protagonists sitting, unacquired, on the 2016 Black List, why does Hollywood keep recycling franchises and adaptations and/or putting cheap spins on them in order to line their pockets? When studios refuse to take risks on new projects, minority voices go on unheard. Interesting ideas rot on the shelf. Another “Minion” movie comes out every two years. If film is the ultimate art — an amalgamation of creative writing, sound, and images — its true potential is being sacrificed for cash. This is obviously a larger problem that can’t rest solely on the shoulders of “Lord of the Flies III: This Time With Girls,” but that project is an apt example.
Maybe this all-female “Lord of the Flies” remake will blur the lines of adaptation to produce a meaningful exploration of the teen girl psyche. Maybe this will be the best film about girlhood since, well, the insightful and carefully-helmed “Girlhood.” Maybe I’ll eat my words. But like every female creator waiting for their script to be picked up, for a chance in the director’s chair, or for a shot as a cinematographer, I’m not going to hold my breath.
