July 2, 2021, 12:40pm
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like [A FILM ADAPTATION]! This week, Variety announced that Bowen Yang is set to star in a modern Pride and Prejudice feature adaptation, which takes place on Fire Island. Joel Kim Booster, who wrote the screenplay, stars opposite Yang; Andrew Ahn (Spa Night) will direct; and JAX Media (Russian Doll) is producing the project.
The plot: Fire Island will “center on two best friends embarking on a weeklong vacation to Fire Island—the historic gay escape off the southern shore of Long Island—with the help of cheap rosé and a cadre of eclectic friends.”
It’s a great idea—to place the Pride and Prejudice story in a different social milieu equally ripe for sendup and sentiment. It also begs some questions: how does Pride and Prejudice map onto this landscape? Are Yang and Booster Jane and Elizabeth, or Elizabeth and Jane, or even Elizabeth and Darcy? And . . . what does the William Collins/Catherine de Bourgh look like on Fire Island? No more information has been released, so we’ll have to head to the movie theater for answers, love, and general incivility.