Hollywood Classics: Writers Rebuild Protagonists for Modern Screens

Hollywood is turning to public domain literature to refresh its slate.

Three new productions released this year adapted John Steinbeck, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens. The creators kept the original time periods and settings. They changed the characters to feel new to 2026 audiences.

Christopher Nolan is directing a film based on Homer’s The Odyssey. Emerald Fennell is adapting Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. These projects join the three series discussed here. Diana Reid, the screenwriter for Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility, calls these texts free IP. She notes that famous authors provide a built-in audience.

Netflix’s East of Eden released on Oct. 1. Showrunner Zoe Kazan has wanted to adapt the book since age 15. Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film version. Kazan says the book is too large for a single film. Her eight-episode series covers only half the material. She focused on Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh. Kazan realized during writing that Cathy is almost always telling the truth. She also saw the bond between brothers Adam and Charles as a central love story that Cathy disrupts.

MGM+ released a four-part series of A Tale of Two Cities last month. Writer Daniel West and star Kit Harington discussed the project for about a decade. West says the story had not had a major screen adaptation in nearly 40 years. He cast Mirren Mack as Lucie Manette. West made Lucie the central investigative force of the plot. This was a change from the novel, where Lucie weeps and faints frequently. He also replaced two existing characters with a new role named Hester, played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. West wanted Hester to be a family member rather than a proxy father figure.

West structured the series as a thriller to maintain high tension. He wanted the characters to always feel unstable. He also turned the central romance into a triangle. This involves Sydney Carton, Lucie, and Charles Darnay. West says this creates ambiguity about where Lucie’s feelings will land until late in the story.

Reid’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility stays in Austen’s era. She added a duel between Colonel Brandon and John Willoughby. Austen mentions this event but does not show it. Reid says viewers need to see the action to understand the drama. She kept many of Austen’s original lines because of their humor. Reid notes that being part of a large catalog of adaptations takes pressure off the project to be definitive.

West points to the archetypal nature of sacrifice in the Dickens novel. He sees parallels to biblical stories. Kazan believes adaptations help general audiences access difficult books. All three writers hope viewers will read the original texts after watching the screen versions.