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*[http://www.avonleatreasures.com Avonlea Treasures] - an ''Anne of Green Gables'' fansite with film site information and more.
*[http://www.avonleatreasures.com Avonlea Treasures] - an ''Anne of Green Gables'' fansite with film site information and more.



{{PastPBSKids_shows}}
[[Category:1985 films]]
[[Category:1985 films]]
[[Category:Anne of Green Gables]]
[[Category:Anne of Green Gables]]

Revision as of 03:17, 23 August 2006

Anne of Green Gables
File:Aogg-dvd1.jpg
DVD cover
Directed byKevin Sullivan
Written byLucy Maud Montgomery (novel)
Kevin Sullivan
Joe Wiesenfeld
Produced byEllen Freyer
Ian McDougall
Kevin Sullivan
StarringMegan Follows
Colleen Dewhurst
Richard Farnsworth
Schuyler Grant
Jonathan Crombie
Distributed bySullivan Entertainment Inc
Release date
1 & December 2 1985
Running time
199 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Anne of Green Gables is a 1985 television movie based on the novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The film was produced and directed by Kevin Sullivan for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The film aired on the CBC as a two-part miniseries on December 1 and 2, 1985. Both parts of the film were among the highest-rated programs of any genre ever to air on a Canadian television network. On February 17 and 18, 1986, the film aired on the PBS in the United States.

Trilogy and spin-off

Anne of Green Gables is the first film in a trilogy of movies based on the titular character. In 1987 the films' sequel, Anne of Avonlea, was released. (It was subsequently retitled Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel on home video.) In 2000 the final movie, Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story, was aired. The final film did not receive the same critical praise as the first two films because it passed over Rilla of Ingleside - the corresponding Anne novel - in favor of a plot not featured in Montgomery's series (although it was based on one of her books).

The first two Anne films generated a spin-off television series that aired form 1989 to 1996. The Road to Avonlea series featured characters and episodes from several of Montgomery's books. Anne herself did not appear in the episodes, but Gilbert Blythe, Marilla Cuthbert, and other characters from the Anne books were included.

Awards and nominations

The film swept the 1986 Gemini Awards, winning the following:

  • Best Dramatic Miniseries
  • Best Actress in a Single Dramatic Program or Miniseries: Megan Follows
  • Best Supporting Actor: Richard Farnsworth
  • Best Supporting Actress: Colleen Dewhurst
  • Best Writing (TV Adaptation): Kevin Sullivan and Joe Wiesenfeld
  • Best Music Composition: Hagood Hardy
  • Best Costume Design: Martha Mann
  • Best Photography: René Ohashi
  • Best Production Design/Art Direction: Carol Spier
  • Most Popular Program

Kevin Sullivan was nominated for Best Director of a dramatic program or series, but lost to Donald Brittain for Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks. The film was also nominated for Best Editing for a dramatic program or series.

The series also won an Emmy Award in 1986, for Outstanding Children's Program.

Lawsuit

Sullivan was sued by the descendants of/heirs to the novel's author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Their contractual agreement with Sullivan said that he would pay them a flat $425,000 (CAD) fee for the right to adapt the first book (and another $100,000 to do the second movie, Anne of Avonlea), plus 10% of all the profits of both. The contract also gave them the right to examine Sullivan Entertainment's financial records. However, when Sullivan claimed that neither of the movies had earned any money (even though, as noted above, they were among the highest-rated television programs in Canadian history) and refused to allow them to audit his books, they took him to court. Sullivan counter-sued for libel, insisting that the heirs should pay him $55 Million because they had defamed his character. An Superior Court of Ontario judge dismissed his suit on January 19, 2004, saying that Sullivan's claim that the movies had never turned a profit was "a joke," and that Sullivan was "one of the most evasive witnesses [she had] encountered."

Cast

Trivia

  • Katharine Hepburn was approached to play Marilla Cuthbert. Although she declined, she referred Sullivan to Schuyler Grant, her niece, who was cast as Diana Barry.


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