William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of young school boys who become savage and violent when they find themselves washed ashore on an abandoned desert island. Instead of order and kindness, they turn to chaos and cruelty. The book is full of madness, murder and a decapitated pig head. Charming, I know.
The book has been adapted into a film two times before, once in 1963 and again in 1990. And now Warner Bros is giving it another go, with Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino looking to direct and produce. Obviously Guadagnino has no intention of getting into family films any time soon.
WB has been dying to get this remake off the ground for ages. A few years ago they were planning to make the film and intended to swap the genders of the young kids, having little girls butcher each other on the island instead of boys. But Variety says that plan has been trashed and Guadagnino’s take on the tale will retain the idea of young men going bonkers. Seems fitting for 2019.
Guadagnino is an inspired choice to direct the adaptation. His work has shown him to be a grounded director whose films come from a very human, true place even when they reach fantastical heights. He’s also the sort of understated director who understands what makes horror scary. He isn’t as showy as some of the other filmmakers in Hollywood, he has a steady eye that makes his movies feel truly authentic and quiet in a calm but often uncomfortable way. I would love to see how he shoots Lord of the Flies. I think his interpretation will prove to be very unnerving and realistic, exactly what a film like this needs. Apparently Guadagnino intends a “contemporary, ultra-kinetic feel” which is a bit surprising coming from him but sounds intriguing.
Lord of the Flies is one of those rare tales that deserves to be told every generation, a reminder to kids and adults of the brutality of man. It’s no mistake that most high school students read it, it says a lot about humanity. Even though the book was written decades ago, it still retains such sad truth about how awful we can be to one another, how stupid we get in crisis and how unpredictable and insane people become when they’re surrounded by others. The world seems to be losing its damn mind lately so a remake of Lord of the Flies makes perfect sense to me.