Back in July, I had, hesitatingly, posted four individual reactions to a “Little Women” L.A. test-screening. All four accounts were positive, but, soon after that, we started to see a shift in Sony’s handling of the upcoming Greta Gerwig-directed adaptation of the popular classicist novel. Gerwig’s film had been test-screened a few times before that. Reactions had, again, been mostly positive. There were a few complaints about how the film’s first half was drastically different in tone to the latter half, alas, that kick-started a whole bunch of rumors about Gerwig going back to the editing room.
Also in July, Hollywood insider Anne Thompson mentioned in her IndieWire podcast that, due to the film’s late December release, it would most likely skip fall festivals altogether. However, that’s not what I had been hearing for most of the summer, hell, there was even a Variety rumor back in April which stated that if Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time in … Hollywood” wasn’t ready for Cannes then, as a conciliatory prize, Sony would offer their back-up film “Little Women” instead to the Cannes committee. According to the piece, rumors had placed both “Little Women” and ‘Once Upon a Time’ in post-production at that time. We aren’t entirely sure what the source of that rumor was, but an outlet like Variety should usually be taken seriously.
And so, I’m not entirely sure why bypassing TIFF and Telluride would be a good thing for such an anticipated, supposedly, auteur-driven movie, but I’m not ready to theorize. What I do know is that the New York Film Festival was very interested in “Little Women,” but that Sony ultimately told the NYFF and Kent Jones that the movie “wasn’t ready.” Maybe it just isn’t.
This is an important movie for Gerwig, the cast is major-league (Chalamet, Ronan, Streep, Watson, Dern, Pugh) and she’s coming off the triumphant success of her Oscar-nominated debut feature “Lady Bird,” by being tasked to take on this prestige-filled adaptation. Gerwig and Sony want to take her time before unveiling this movie, nothing wrong with that.
Gyllenhaal says women face systemic barriers in an industry that may not value the kinds of films they want to make. Roy Price’s response? Watch “The Bride.”