BBC in talks to remake classic film 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'

London, Feb 13 (ANI): The BBC is said to be in talks with a major Hollywood studio to remake the classic film 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'.

According to a Hollywood executive, there are discussions of making a fresh adaptation of the 1969 novel by the late John Fowles with the BBC.ary Marenzi, MGM co-president of worldwide television distribution, said that outline plans for the new adaptation would be a four one-hour miniseries.

"We have just got another draft of the script. Now we'll start to look at casting and where to shoot, it could start later this year," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Marenzi further added that the film might be set in America, even though the book is solely based Lyme Regis.

But the news of the location being elsewhere did not sit well with friends of the author, who have said if any new production was to be filmed anywhere else, it would be a travesty and an "insult" to his memory.

"The first third of the book is all about Lyme, how could they possibly think of setting it anywhere else?" Ken Gallop, a trustee at the town's museum where Fowles worked as a volunteer curator, said.

"I don't think that John would have given his permission for it to be filmed anywhere else if he was alive today.

"Even now we get lots of American women with their daughters coming down to the Cobb and posing," he added.

Fowles' widow Sarah added: "If and when it happens I would be very pleased not only for John but for Lyme Regis too."

A BBC spokesman has, however, not confirmed whether the new adaptation will go ahead.

"The talks are loose. We haven't agreed anything," he said. (ANI)