‘The Secret Garden’ Trailer: The Literary Classic Gets A Shiny And Trim New Adaptation
The healing magic of nature has long been the driving message ofFrances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved children’s novelThe Secret Garden. But in the shiny new adaptation of the literary classic, the titular garden may actually be magical? With a producing team that hails fromHarry PotterandPaddington,that could very well be the case. Watch the officialThe Secret Gardentrailer below.
The Secret Garden Trailer
One of my favorite things about the 1993 adaptation ofThe Secret Garden, as well as the original book itself, was how wild and untamed it and its central character was. Mary Lennox was a spoiled brat, and that was game-changing for me as a young reader and movie watcher. The desolate moors whereThe Secret Gardentakes place was intimidating and wild, and the garden that Mary stumbles upon was wilder still. But there’s something very shiny and neat about this new adaptation ofThe Secret Garden. The wildness has been trimmed down, the nature a little too picturesque and pretty.
But perhaps that’s part of the creative liberties that directorMarc Munden(Utopia,Black Sails) and writerJack Thorne(Wonder,Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) will be taking with this new adaptation. From the looks of the trailer, the garden at the center ofThe Secret Gardenmay actually be magical in this film — a bit of a departure from the book, where the garden only becomes the inspiration and vessel for the innate goodness inside Mary all along. NewcomerDixie Egerickxplays the young orphan Mary Lennox, andColin Firthplays her uncle, the distant and grief-stricken Archibald Craven. Meanwhile, the prickly Mrs. Medlock is played byJulie Walters,Edan Hayhurstplays Mary’s sickly cousin Colin, andHis Dark Materials’Amir Wilsonplays Dickon.
Here’s the synopsis forThe Secret Garden:
THE SECRET GARDEN tells the story of Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx,Genius), a prickly and unloved 10-year-old girl, born in India to wealthy British parents. When they suddenly die, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven (Colin Firth – A Single Man, The King’s Speech) on his remote country estate deep in the Yorkshire moors. There, she begins to uncover many family secrets, particularly after meeting her sickly cousin Colin (Edan Hayhurst,Genius), who has been shut away in a wing of the house. Together, these two damaged, slightly misfit children heal each other through their discovery of a wondrous secret garden, lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor. A magical place of adventure that will change their lives forever.
The Secret Gardenhits theaters in the UK onApril 17, 2020with a U.S. release soon to follow.
