Greta Gerwig’s Little Women adaptation is starting to get as big and star-studded as Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The filmmaker’s follow-up to her multi-Oscar-nominated hit Lady Bird already scored Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Florence Pugh and returning Gerwig vets Saorise Ronan and Timothée Chalamet. Now it looks like it has Emma Watson, too, wants to get involved in the picture.
Variety is reporting that the Harry Potter alum is in talks to join the Louisa May Alcott adaptation, in an as-yet-unspecified role. In fact, no cast member has been publicly assigned a character, though safe to assume Watson, Pugh and Ronan will be playing three of the four March sisters. Sources do say, however, that she’ll be taking the role initially occupied by Emma Stone, who had to drop out of the production due to a scheduling conflict.
Alcott’s classic novel has been filmed many times, notably in 1933, with Katharine Hepburn as Jo, and in 1949, with Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh. A version from 1994 starred Winona Ryder and Claire Danes. Gerwig’s take isn’t the only version coming out in the foreseeable future: A modern-day adaptation, starring Lea Thompson, is due out this year, marking the 150th anniversary of the novel. Gerwig’s Little Women is schedule for a Christmas Day 2019 release, after which the filmmaker can presumably get back to making her “spiritual sequels” to Lady Bird.
