Modern 'Great Expectations' poses dickens of a problem

When the filmmakers who updated Charles Dickens' classic novel "Great Expectations" for the big screen considered the idea, even they didn't know what to expect.

But they knew that they faced a dickens of a problem.

"Great Expectations" stars Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro.

Hawke, screenwriter Mitch Glazer ("Scrooged") and director Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess") were more than a little unsure about the plan of co-producer John Linson and his father, producer Art Linson ("The Edge," "The Untouchables," "Melvin and Howard"), to modernize the 1861 literary classic.

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke embrace in a passionate rain scene.

Instead of another costume drama a la "Emma" or "The Wings of the Dove," this latest version of "Great Expectations" is set in modern-day Florida and New York City.

"It's oftentimes done with Shakespeare. Dickens is kind of an odd choice. I was very skeptical," Hawke said.

"I literally said 'no' for months," Glazer added. "I wanted to make sure it was something I could bring into the '90s."

In the screenplay by Glazer, a Key Biscayne native, who grew up in Miami Beach, Pip becomes Finn Bell (Hawke), a Gulf Coast fisherman's nephew turned child prodigy artist. Mrs. Havisham is transformed into eccentric dowager Ms. Dinsmoor (Bancroft). The convict Magwitch becomes Lustig (Robert De Niro). Estella (Paltrow) stayed Estella because, Glazer said, "There is no match."

"I didn't want to do this film," Cuaron said. "David Lean did the perfect adaptation of 'Great Expectations' (in 1946). I saw this as a re-adaptation. Mitch Glazer took the bare bones of the material and then we just ... created our own film."

Filming for "Great Expectations" began July 8, 1996, in Sarasota at the Ringling mansion, which became Dinsmoor's "Paradiso Perduto" (Paradise Lost). The filming then moved to Cortez Island, representing a Gulf of Mexico fishing village, and then to New York City and a loft on Astor Place.

There's a good reason why so many literary classics are again being updated for the big screen.

"The themes are powerful and spectacular. And Dickens is a master of plot," Glazer said.

"Everybody's looking for great material. And the classics have great stories." Cuaron added.

Glazer, whose "Scrooged," starring Bill Murray, was a remake of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," said he attempted to retain the novel's big themes for his screenplay. "To me, there were certain timeless themes which were still applicable, obsessive love and the father/son relationship. The thing that wasn't (timeless) was the 19th-Century obsession with class - the dream of becoming a gentleman."

Cuaron explained how his visual style focuses on the character of Finn: "I think that what really affected (the results) the most was telling the film from one point of view, the perspective of Finn's character. ... So everything that you see is nothing but a projection of his inner life."

Paltrow said: "I know (Estella) comes off kind of really horrible and that she's a mean spirit, but I really didn't think of her that way.

"The meaner she is, the more her mother tells her she's a good person. I think in her heart, she's a good person."

In the movie, Finn sketches Estella in his Manhattan apartment. The drawings and paintings were by internationally acclaimed Italian painter Francesco Clemente. Although the scene is rather tame, it involved full nudity for Paltrow, who sat for the original drawings and paintings by Clemente "butt-naked in a SoHo loft" and then recreated the scene for the film, with Hawke imitating the drawings.

Hawke and Paltrow agreed that their friendship made filming the scene more comfortable.

Said Greenwich Village resident Hawke, who, with "Gattaca" co-star Uma Thurman, 27, is awaiting their first child: "This movie is kind of a sensual movie and it could have been really, really uncomfortable. But she's (Paltrow) a real pro. You can kind of tell how comfortable she is with the set. Her mother's (actress) Blythe Danner. (Her father is director Bruce Paltrow). You can see that it comes very easily to her."

"Paltrow kind of grew up in the whole New York theater scene. We had known each other via that, which made the movie a whole lot easier."

02-05-98