We consulted on “Enola Holmes,” and now we’re reacting to it! [Video]
In the early Spring of 2019, BSBs Maria and Ashley were hired by Legendary Pictures to serve as technical advisors on a new film, then titled Ferndell. The film was an adaptation of the first book in Nancy Springer’s YA series about Sherlock Holmes’s clever teenage sister, Enola. The titular protagonist was to be played by Millie Bobby Brown, but other than that, very little about the film was set. Legendary specifically wanted consultants who not only had a deep knowledge of Sherlock Holmes, but who were women. The film was about a woman, it was based on a novel written by a woman, the target audience would primarily be girls and women, and we were pleased that they sought out women to offer feedback on the script.
We were only involved at that early stage of the project: we read the first full draft of Jack Thorne’s script and, independently, generated extensive notes. We are both Sherlockians, English professors, and aficionados of Victorian history. We brought all of that knowledge to bear, offering details on everything from canonical chronologies to characterizations, from Victorian vocabulary to symbolism, from late-19th-century politics to modes of transportation. Once we sent off our notes, it was up to Thorne and the creative team behind the film to make use of them how they saw fit.
From that point on, we learned about the film’s progress along with everyone else: Harry Bradbeer was attached to direct it. Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin were cast as the Holmes brothers and Helena Bonham Carter was set to play Enola’s mother. The announcement was made that the film would be released on Netflix (ultimately a serendipitous choice, given the state of cinemas during the pandemic). Finally, trailers started airing and a release date, 23 September, was announced.
We decided to watch the film for the first time together and record the experience. The video includes our genuine reactions as we encounter the material for the first time since we read that early script 18 months ago—laughter, facepalms, swearing, discussion, and lots of wine. It’s meant to serve as a light commentary, to be viewed alongside the film. So if you’d like to laugh and watch with us, cue up your Netflix, open the video, and have your beverage of choice at the ready!
Watch Here or Below!
Note that we both signed non-disclosure agreements, so we don’t discuss any details of the script we read. This is obviously not in any way affiliated with Legendary, Netflix, or the film Enola Holmes.
We hope you enjoy!
Ashley D. Polasek holds a PhD in English, with a specialty in adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, a subject on which she has published in Adaptation, Literature/Film Quarterly, Transformative Works and Cultures, Viewfinder, and The Journal of Victorian Culture Online, among others. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honourary Research Fellow at the Centre for Adaptations at De Montfort University.
Ashley is the co-editor, with Lyndsay Faye, of Behind the Canonical Screen (BSI Press, 2016) and the co-editor, with Prof. Deborah Cartmell, of The Blackwell Companion to the Biopic (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2018). You can follow her on Twitter @SherlockPhD
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