L.M. Montgomery Research Group

Sullivan Entertainment has announced that the first two seasons of Road to Avonlea will be available in restored, high-definition DVD sets on 20 October 2009. For more details, see the pre-order pages for Road to Avonlea: The Complete First Season / Les Contes d’Avonlea: L’intégrale de la première saison and Road to Avonlea: The Complete Second Season / Les Contes d’Avonlea: L’intégrale de la deuxième saison.

There is a new website for the Anime version of Before Green Gables, which has been airing on Japanese television as Konnichiwa Anne since April 2009. The series is directed by Katsuyoshi Yatabe and is produced by Nippon Animation, which produced the 1979 Akage no An anime. See also the entry on Konnichiwa Anne on the Anime News Network. Thanks to Yuka for bringing this to my attention.

The Sullivan Entertainment telefilm Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning has been nominated for two Director’s Guild of Canada awards, one for Best Television Movie/Miniseries and one for Ray Lorenz for Best Production Design in a Television Movie/Miniseries. The results will be known at the awards gala on 24 October 2009.

In addition, the telefilm was nominated for three Gemini Awards: for Best Costume Design (Martha Mann), Best Achievement in Make-Up (Lynda McCormack and Madeleine Russell) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries (Barbara Hershey). For more information, visit the website for the 24th Annual Gemini Awards.

Sullivan Entertainment has announced on its Anne of Green Gables website that its latest film, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, will air on CTV on 14 December 2008, at 7:00 PM. They include a detailed synopsis:

It is 1945 and Anne Shirley (Academy-award nominee and Golden Globe winner, Barbara Hershey) now a successful, middle-aged writer has returned to Prince Edward Island for an extended visit. On a whim, she agrees to write a play for a theatre producer. The play, she reasons, will keep her busy—at least busy enough to not go out of her mind with worry about her only son who has yet to return from the war overseas. But a long-hidden secret in the form of a letter from her errant father, discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables, provides a distraction of its own. As Anne struggles to complete the play, she delves into long-buried memories, reliving the troubled years before she arrived as an orphan at the Green Gables farmhouse. She is forced to confront the fact that she made up stories about her life; after her mother died and when her father deserted his young daughter. During that time, Young Anne (newcomer Hannah Endicott-Douglas), is taken into the care of a wealthy matriarch, Amelia Thomas (Academy-award winner Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter-in-law, Louisa (Rachel Blanchard), which changes her life forever.

Over the course of one remarkable summer, Anne Shirley discovers the astonishing truth about her father, the origins of her quest for “kindred spirits” and the roots of her brilliant, magical imagination.

A new trailer for the telefilm is now available at Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables website. While there is not yet any news about broadcast dates outside of Canada, they have also announced that the film will be released on DVD shortly.

Kevin Sullivan’s upcoming film Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning will have its world premiere at the 2008 Boston Film Festival on Monday, 15 September 2008, at 8:15 PM. The synopsis on their schedule reads as follows:

Kevin Sullivan’s original story explores the unwritten origins of the iconic character, Anne of Green Gables, as Anne finds a secret letter in the floorboards of Green Gables, almost 50 years after she arrived on Prince Edward Island, that reveals her troubled family history.

The 141-minute film, which stars Barbara Hershey, Hannah Endicott-Douglas, Rachel Blanchard, and Shirley MacLaine, will air on CTV this fall. A broadcast date has not been announced, nor has plans to broadcast the film outside Canada, but it will eventually be available on DVD. A novelization of the film will be published by Key Porter Books on 1 October 2008.

Echo Bridge Home Entertainment will be releasing Emily of New Moon: The Complete First Season on 9 September 2008! The first season of Emily of New Moon contains thirteen episodes that originally aired on CBC Television between January and April 1998. The cast includes Susan Clark as Aunt Elizabeth, Stephen McHattie as Cousin Jimmy, Martha MacIsaac as Emily, Sheila McCarthy as Aunt Laura, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley. Guest stars include Michael Moriarty, Claire Rankin, Tom McCamus, Maury Chaykin, Leni Parker, Normand Bissonnette, Peter Donaldson, Jacqueline MacKenzie, Liisa Repo Martell, Chip Chuipka, Joan Orenstein, and Phyllis Diller. The first season contains the following episodes:

• The Eye of Heaven (Written by Marlene Matthews; Directed by George Bloomfield) (4 January 1998)
• Storms of the Heart (Written by Janet MacLean; Directed by Randy Bradshaw) (11 January 1998)
• The Book of Yesterday (Story by Peter Meech; Teleplay by Jeremy Hole; Directed by Richard Ciupka) (18 January 1998)
• The Disappointed House (Written by Heather Conkie; Directed by Eleanore Lindo) (25 January 1998)
• Paradise Lost (Written by Jeremy Hole; Directed by George Bloomfield) (1 February 1998)
• The Enchanted Doll (Written by Marlene Matthews; Directed by Mark Sobel) (8 March 1998)
• Falling Angels (Written by Janet MacLean; Directed by Phil Comeau) (15 March 1998)
• The Tale of Duncan McHugh (Written by Rob Forsyth; Directed by Giles Walker) (22 March 1998)
• Wild Rover (Written by Janet MacLean; Directed by Michael Kennedy) (29 March 1998)
• The Ghost of Wyther Grange (Written by Joe Wiesenfeld; Directed by Douglas Jackson) (5 April 1998)
• A Child Shall Lead Them (Written by Joe Wiesenfeld; Directed by Jimmy Kaufman) (12 April 1998)
• A Winter’s Tale (Written by Marlene Matthews; Directed by Gabriel Pelletier) (12 April 1998)
• The Sound of Silence (Written by Marlene Matthews; Directed by Stefan Scaini) (19 April 1998)

The DVD set can be pre-ordered at a 30% discount through Amazon.ca.

In anticipation of the CTV broadcast of Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (an exact date has not yet been released), Sullivan Entertainment will release six books in September and October. A novelization of the new movie, written by Kevin Sullivan, will be published by Key Porter Books on 1 October (Amazon.ca listing here). Also on that day, they are publishing through Davenport Press reissues of Montgomery’s novels Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island; an audio CD of Anne of Green Gables, read by Kevin Sullivan; and a new novelization of their first Anne of Green Gables miniseries.

Sullivan Entertainment has also released new trailers of the New Beginning movie, both of which imply that Anne wasn’t really an orphan after all. View them at their official website.

Symian Days has posted two blog posts on Anne of Green Gables in Japan: “Little ‘Red Hair Anne’” and “‘Red Hair Anne’ Strikes Again.” Thanks to Yuka for sending these my way.

Also, I have read reports that the 1979 animation Akage no An, which to the best of my knowledge has never been dubbed into English (correct me if I’m wrong), will be or has been released on DVD in French. I will post again once I receive confirmation and all the ordering details.

Emily of New Moon does not appear to be on Showcase’s schedule for the next two weeks, but reruns continue to air on VisionTV:

• Mon., 31 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 4.1/40: Rites of Passage
• Tue., 1 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.2/41: The Taming of Ilse Burnley
• Wed., 2 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.3/42: A Bill of Divorcement
• Thu., 3 Jan., 7:00 AM ET, 6:00 PM ET: 2.5/18: The Witches’ Spell Book
• Thu., 3 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.4/43: Too Close to the Sun
• Fri., 4 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.5/44: The Weight of the World
• Mon., 7 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.6/45: Away
• Tue., 8 Jan., 4:00 PM ET: 4.7/46: A Seller of Dreams
• Thu., 10 Jan., 7:00 AM ET, 6:00 PM ET, 11:00 PM ET: 2.5/18: By the Rivers of Babylon

On Showcase:

• Sat., 22 Dec., 6:00 AM ET/PT: 3.7/33: In the Valley of the Shadow of Death
• Sun., 23 Dec., 6:00 AM ET/PT: 3.8/34: Had a Wife and Couldn’t Keep Her
• Sat., 29 Dec., 6:00 AM ET/PT: 3.9/35: A Fall from Grace
• Sun., 30 Dec., 6:00 AM ET/PT: 3.10/36: The Bequest

On VisionTV:

• Mon., 17 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.5/31: Bred in the Bone
• Tue., 18 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.6/32: The Return of Malcolm Murray
• Wed., 19 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.7/33: In the Valley of the Shadow of Death
• Thu., 20 Dec., 7:00 AM ET, 6:00 PM ET: 2.3/16: A Shadow in His Dream
• Thu., 20 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.8/34: Had a Wife and Couldn’t Keep Her
• Fri., 21 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.9/35: A Fall from Grace
• Mon., 24 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.10/36: The Bequest
• Wed., 26 Dec., 4:00 PM ET, 11:00 PM ET: 3.11/37: Command Performance
• Thu., 27 Dec., 7:00 AM ET, 6:00 PM ET: 2.4/17: Where Angels Fear to Tread
• Thu., 27 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.12/38: A Man May Work from Sun to Sun, But a Woman’s Work is Never Done
• Fri., 28 Dec., 4:00 PM ET: 3.13/39: A Weaver of Dreams