Image Credit: Janet Mayer/PR Photos
Disney is bringing Agatha Christie’s venerable detective Miss Marple back to the big screen, but this won’t be your father’s — or your grandfather’s — Miss Marple. EW has confirmed that, as first reported on Deadline, Jennifer Garner will play the amateur sleuth in a new take on the character. In Christie’s 12 Miss Marple mystery novels, which she began publishing in 1930, and numerous television, film, and radio adaptations over the decades, Miss Marple has always been depicted — most famously by Margaret Rutherford in four films in the 1960s, Angela Lansbury in the 1980 movie The Mirror Crack’d, and Joan Hickson in a string of BBC TV movies — as an elderly spinster in a small English village who, underneath her sweet-old-lady exterior, is a flinty and formidable crime solver. (Christie said she based the character on her own grandmother.) But in casting Garner — and hiring Mark Frost, who co-created Twin Peaks with David Lynch, to write the screenplay for a Miss Marple reboot in a contemporary setting — Disney clearly intends to blow the dust off the character and give her a youthful and modern spin.
How about no.
No as well.
Travesty! Joan Hickson was the quintessential Miss Marple, and while others have played her adequately, portraying her as a young hottie is stinkin thinkin in the extreme.
oh the humanity
I wish her well
Third no as well .
There are few enough good roles for actresses who are no longer young…why take away one of the few left?
she’s gonna be wearing a cleavage bearing latex mini-skirt isn’t she? And complaining that she doesn’t have a man!!! All the while solving crimes. Another NO
Travesty! Margaret Rutherford was the quintessential Miss Marple.
There’s TONS of age-appropriate actresses who could play Marple! It’s not exactly like there’s an abundance of roles for older actresses, and Harry’s Law is testament to what some truly great actresses have to lower themselves to in order to be the lead–for heaven’s sake even Bates is too young but I’d prefer her over not-even-forty Garner!
it’s not that they somehow want to deny old actresses work, it’s that they know way less people will see the movie and that will get them less money if they cast someone old. Get used to it, people would rather look at young, hot women then old women. It was like that before hollywood.
why, why, why the world loves Ms Marple the way she is.
NO, NO, NO!!!
Hell to the No.
Thank you, Whitney. Why can’t they let an older actress have a job???!!!
I wonder if Jennifer will be wearing a red latex outfit in this one as she goes about solving crimes in the English countryside of Ojai?
This.
Come on, why ?
Good G*d NO! I love Jennifer Garner but she is American and 30 years too young for the part. Bad idea. British actress Joan HIckson, was the quintessential Jane Marple (you can Google her). Ms. Hickson was 78 years old when cast as Marple and was perfection. I also like Julia McKenzie, the current PBS British Miss Marple. Underscore the words “British” and “septuagenarians!!”
Sacrilege! Margaret Rutherford was the quintessential Miss Marple. (You can Google her.)
oh no- I hope it’s not a Disney dilution….oh… and yes, she is too young!
Just when you think Hollywood couldn’t come up with any stupider ideas. And where the hell is the Christie estate in all of this? STOP THE INSANITY!
I so agree. Or, did the estate need money so badly that they sold the rights to Disney??? Either way, the project should go the way of the “Bionic Woman” reboot that was ‘modernized’.
The Christie estate–Agatha herself–sold the rights to Paramount to the character decades ago. They get nothing from it. Sorry, a young pretty woman gets noticed where an old plain woman does not–hence the detecting. The formula can’t work for Jennifer Garner. Even Helen Mirren is too sexy for the role.
Then why the f&^% didn’t they option NANCY DREW?
MISS MARPLE is a wonderful busybody character who could delight all ages. Oscar-worthy actresses better cast than Garner:
- Dame Maggie Smith
- Dame Judi Dench
- Brenda Blethyn
- Imelda Staunton
- Julie Walters
- even Joanna Lumley or Jennifer Saunders or Dawn French would be killer in this part!
Helen Mirren
@Strepsi – GREAT LIST!! Agree with Templar. I’d only add Dame Helen Mirren!. And maybe Geraldine James.
Those are some great Dames
Julie Walters is actually just sixty. I don’t think she appreciates everyone lumping her in with all these other old bags.
OH GOOD GRIEF. Dame Julie Andrews could do a better job than this Hollywood blowup doll. A brilliant job. Or any of the women mentioned.
Miss Marple was based on Christie’s GRANDMOTHER. The world DOES NOT NEED MS. MARPLE. There are plenty of mystery authors out there with (relatively) cute young (American) thangs as their lead detectives. Why doesn’t Disney go pick on them and quit ruining classics?
Hollywood revamping classic detective stories for a younger audience makes as much sence as PBS sending Thor to discuss love and class difference in an English country estate in the 1800s while sipping tea with his very propper mum and dad played by Maggie Smith and Derek Jakoby. (I’m looking at you, Robert Downey Junior’s mess of a Sherlock Holmes movie!)
I agree
I agree. Do they not know that a new series of TV movies is ongoing as we speak, anyway? It’s not like the series is dormant and in need of a ‘reboot’.
Agree – totally unnecessary. How will Garner pull off being a gossipy spinster? How will she pull off the accent? Instead of dragging down the Marple brand, why not create a new character. Just sayin….
No. No. No.
HELL no
Will they let her wear her Elektra suit for the role of Miss Marple?
NO!!!! They should change it to the one Elektra wears in the comics – you know, where she’d just be wearing little loincloth thingies to cover her bare butt! THAT would be a Miss Marple I could get behind!!!
I agree NO although without makeup she does look old and haggard.
you are jealous. I will watch Jennifer Garner in any role. She is awesome.
NO! NO! NO! Have the Disney people read the books??? Miss Marple is a mature woman. . . with a brain.
Jennifer Garner is awesome and has a brain. Don’t get it twisted.
However, I have no idea who or what Miss Marple is…that’s right I said it!
Walters, Walters, Walters, Walters, Walters I’m going to keep on saying it until she gets the job. Walters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersvvWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersWalters, Walters, Walters, Walters, WaltersVA:F [1.9.11_1134]
Uh … really? Isn’t the entire point of Miss Marple is that she fools people by acting like a dotty old lady? I don’t see the point in revising this character.
More like how about HELL NO!
Once again Hollywood shows its bias against older women.
Never heard of her but it annoys me how Hollywood feels the need to make everyone young these days ><
I LOVE Jennifer Garner and would love to see her catching bad guys again (I’m still missing Alias). That being said, did Disney have to make her Miss Marple in order to do that? Marple was a grandmother for a reason. Let’s leave Agatha Christie alone and let Jen play her own, unique character.
Miss Marple wasn’t a grandmother, she was a spinster.
actually josh wrote that miss marple was based on agatha’s grandmother not that she was a grandmother !
@Joseph McFadden See KM above.
From KM : “Marple was a grandmother for a reason.”
This is the line that Joseph McFadden was commenting on. You are right that she was a spinster, he’s right that KM doesn’t know that fact about the Miss Marple character.
I doubt it will be the book’s Marple, but rather a descedent or just plain modern version. I’m glad too, there’s only many times the Butler could have done it, in the library, with the letter opener.
Ummmm, it seems you’re confusing Agatha Christie’s extensive literary work with the board game Clue. You know, books are your friends.
Sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean “grandmother”; I know she isn’t a grandmother. I meant to imply that she was old, but realized after posting my comment that I’d chosen the wrong word.
“Jen”???????
@ KM, I still miss Alias. Someone stole my whole collection of Alias. Still upset years later.
The whole point of the character is that she’s an old lady. Why use the name if you are going to do this? It’s like making a Greek Poirot.
Or a white trash trailer park version of Tommy and Tupperence Beresford .
Or a Nero Wolfe who loves McDonald’s.
This made me chuckle.
Gasp! I love you so much for referencing Tommy and Tuppence. They’re my favorite.
It’s time for Jennifer to start taking on those Oscar-caliber roles that she’s completely capable of.
Agreed.
Jennifer Garner is so talented and diverse in her abilities. She deserves better than this!
Agree, this is going to tarnish her (yes, even worse then Electra).
I agree–I love Jennifer Garner. The problem is, she’s almost 40, which in Hollywood is the age when actresses start getting roles as moms in kids’ movies. People here are saying she’s too young for Marple, but she’s probably considered too old for a lot of other things now. This role is probably better than a lot of things she’s being offered!
I know. She was so good in Juno. I want to see her in more movies like that where she can really show her range.
Like x10,000. This role does not suit her.
Why do a reboot I’ve always love miss marple as a old lady…. what elanie strich
Every person has an origin people ;p Did Miss Marple at the ripe old age of old suddenly decide to solve crime? Doubtfuly
No she gained her knowledge of human nature through decades of observing village life. Jeez, read the books.
Amen. Read the source material. Er is quite correct.
Have some imagination…besides the only way this becomes a hollywood movie is to have her younger or have Helen Mirren play it…I think judgment should be held till it comes out.
I’m all for Helen Mirren. Or Judi Dench. Or Judy Walters. Ugh!! There are so many amazing actresses that could play this role.
What are these “books” that everyone keeps talking about?
Miss Marple always waxes on about losing her fiance in the war and she’s longtime friends and family with the characters she interacts with. If it’s a younger Miss Marple then it’s set in the 30′s which would be quite cool. So I won’t join in on bashing a project that hasn’t been written yet.
Did the Sherlock reboot get bashed like this?
Honestly why do you need to make her younger and why does it need to be in the 30′s. Part of what makes that character unique is that she’s an older spinster lady who everyone has discounted yet she proves them all wrong through her amazing investigative prowess. It’s an underdog story. Jennifer Garner is in no way an underdog.
Dominic ; except Sherlock Holmes reboot didn’t decide to erase the really essence of the character. They have (more or less) the same age and live in the same period as their book’s counterparts.
Sherlock reboot was totally different, n00b. The actors were still in the same age range and were actually English.
Sherlock Holmes as a woman, Tommy & Tuppence as a gay couple, Hercule Poirot as a California playboy, and Sam Spade as an Oxford professor.
Oh the horrors!
Ha – very funny. I see Justin Timberlake as Hercule, Ryan Reynolds as Sam Spade, and Ryan Seacrest as the young Einstein.
Oh, hell no!
Most famously by Angela Lansbury?
Josh doesn’t have a clue.
Margaret Rutherford popularized Marple in a series of great MGM mysteries.
actually what josh wrote is that most famously by margaret rutherford did do four great movies in the 60′s and angela lansbury in 1980′s the mirror crack’d !
The original post had no mention of Margaret Rutherford.
Agatha Christie did not like Margaret Rutherford’s portrayal of Miss Marple at all, and for good reason. While I love Rutherford, she was completely miscast. Not as badly as Jennifer Garner, though.
Thank you Lisa. You are exactly right. Margaret Rutherford lacked the gentility to portray Miss Marple. Lansbury was only so-so in the role and several more recent efforts have been disappointing.. Someone up thread cited Joan Hickson as being the best and I quite agree.
I love Angela, but did not buy her as Miss Marple. And one scene had her smoking a cig which Jane would NEVER do.
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This is not going to work – it is just wrong!
Dumbest idea in a long time.
NOOO!! How can they take such an iconic character and so that to her!? Garner isn’t the problem (though the casting is also questionable) – why take a character that has served so well over decades and decide to ‘mix it up a bit’ just for the sake of it???? NOT ACCEPTIBLE!!!!!!!!
Unless it’s an origin story (and I generally hate those), this is a terrible idea. It turns an iconic character into a generic crime-fighting babe. Miss Marple solved crimes by using her instincts honed by decades of observing village life. She was a frail old lady, best portrayed by Joan Hickson.
Word!
Is there no one in Hollywood with an original idea? Stop remaking things that have been done to death already. Do we really need a 10th Jane Eyre? or an 8th Pride & Prejudice? Or a crappy movie based on an old sitcom? .Good grief, where is the next J.K.Rowling when we need her?
Yike!!! No, no no no. “The next JK Rowling” was used to describe Stephanie Meyers and ‘Twilight’. Please GODS don’t torture us with another moronic hack like that. We just need JK Rowling to write some good non-Potter books in the same universe of magic and realism.
Please don’t throw up that hack Rowling as a source for movie ideas or scripts.