Page 32 - The Hollywood Reporter (January 2020)

BEST PICTURE
Little Women

Writer-director Greta Gerwig breathes new life into
Louisa May Alcott’s timeless tale of four close-knit sisters coming of age

in the years during and after the Civil War BY PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

n the early 1990s, Amy at the U.S. box office since skat-
Pascal was the Sony ing into theaters on Christmas VITAL STATS
production executive Day, and is now nominated for

in charge of develop- six Oscars. And it’s only the third STUDIO Sony
I ing the latest big-screen film in history that’s directed, RELEASE DATE Dec. 25
adaptation of Little Women. written and produced by women WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE
That version, directed by Gillian to contend for best picture. $111M (through Jan. 16)
Armstrong, starred Winona Ryder (Pascal also reunited with the DIRECTOR Greta Gerwig
as Jo (earning her a second Oscar 1994 film’s producer Denise Di CAST
nomination) and Christian Bale as Novi and screenwriter Robin Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson,
Laurie, as well as Susan Sarandon, Swicord, who both served as pro- Eliza Scanlen, Timothée Chalamet,
Kirsten Dunst and Claire Danes. ducers on this latest adaptation.) Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
A decade later, when Pascal Pascal tells THR about how
TOP AWARDS
was running Sony’s film studio, she convinced Sony to make the 6 Oscar noms, 5 BAFTA noms, 2 Globe noms
she was approached by another film, a tough moment on set
adoring fan of Louisa May (think: weather) and why she was
Alcott’s iconic 1868 novel about obsessed with Gerwig’s vision of a about women’s economic indepen-
four sisters who march to their story she holds close to her heart. dence. And she wanted to tell it in
own drumbeat in a patriarchal “I’m all things Little Women,” she two timelines. She knew the cast
world: Greta Gerwig, an actress says. “My father read the book to that she wanted to put in it. She
and then-emerging filmmaker my mother when I was in utero, even knew the colors, and showed
who had her own unique take on and my name is Amy Beth.” me references from Winslow

the feminist tale. Homer paintings. She had already
Pascal and Gerwig formed an You were first approached by done an entire bible of what she
immediate bond, but it would Greta Gerwig in 2014 when you wanted the movie to feel like, what
take years to get the project off were still chairman of Sony’s film she wanted it to sound like and
the ground. Pascal left her top studio. Why were you so drawn to what she wanted it to be. It was
studio gig in early 2015, after the her take on this classic tale? one of the more inspiring meet-
Sony hack, to become a producer, AMY PASCAL She came in and told ings of my life.
while Gerwig went off to make me what she intended to do with
the Oscar-nominated Lady Bird. It the screenplay. She had the entire Were you concerned about the
was worth the wait: Little Women movie already worked out. She script jumping back and forth in
has earned more than $75 million knew that she wanted to make it time, versus telling the story in a
traditional, linear fashion?
Never. I always felt very confi-
dent in her vision. She wanted Why didn’t it get off the ground
to make it about our memory, before you left Sony in early 2015?
and the way in which we idealize Oh, it’s like every other thing — it
our childhood. takes forever to make a movie
happen. She went off and did Lady
This was before Lady Bird, correct? Bird, so it took a while to come
Yes, it was. But Greta Gerwig is a up with the complex orchestra-
force of nature, and I fell in love. tion of the screenplay she had in
her mind.

Was it difficult persuading [Sony
“To me, the book was so clearly chairman] Tom Rothman to green-

about women, art and money. I felt light Little Women? LITTLE: WILSON WEBB/COLUMBIA PICTURES (2). PASCAL: PAUL MAROTTA/GETTY IMAGES FOR SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT.
like there were all these spiky I remember him calling me and
saying, “I read the script over the
things that I could really dig into.” weekend and I cried six times,
GRETA GERWIG
and we have to make this movie.”
From left: Producer Amy Pascal, Timothée Chalamet, Eliza Then I brought Greta in for a
Scanlen, Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Florence Pugh and Chris
Cooper on the Massachusetts set of Little Women. meeting. He really believed in her.

T H E H O L L Y W O O D R E P O R T E R 2 8 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 A W A R D S 1