L.M. Montgomery Research Group

Those of you who visit this website regularly may have noticed that it was offline for several weeks. Due to a security breach, I had to suspend access to the site until I had the chance to investigate further, and I finally came to the conclusion that the existing files I was using had become corrupted, hence the need for a new visual design (which means new files and new code). So currently I’m working with this new look, although I’m still fiddling with it. The site should be more or less functional, although if anything’s missing or weird please let me know.

We were experiencing technical difficulties this weekend while we moved the website from one location to another, but everything seems to be back to normal now. Plus we’re running with version 2.8 of WordPress, so we hope to add some new bells and whistles in the near future.

I have received a message from Cort Egan, announcing that registration is now open for “The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery,” a Symposium hosted by the University of Guelph, and can be accessed at: http://www.lmmrc.ca/conference.

Helen Salmon, the University of Guelph’s Associate Chief Librarian, describes the Symposium:

The university has undertaken an extensive digitization project to make its extensive collection of Montgomery memorabilia — including her private journals, scrapbooks, handiwork, photographs, and other records – more accessible to Montgomery scholars and fans everywhere. The symposium will offer the very first opportunity to explore the newly launched collections website, examine the archival collections first-hand, view an L.M. Montgomery exhibit at the University’s art gallery, and listen to speakers who will explore her impact on readers, writers, and women in the 20th century. Join with Canada’s foremost Montgomery scholars, biographers, enthusiasts, and fans to recognize her world-wide legacy and explore the mystery of her creativity. This four day weekend event will include coach tours to view several of  L.M. Montgomery’s residences in Ontario, the opening of an art exhibit,  film viewings, panel discussions, and scholarly presentations which will highlight author’s contributions to literary and popular culture.

The new website design has a few bugs left, but I thought it was time to unleash it. Here’s the old design and the new, for archiving purposes. A few pages have moved, but pretty much everything is where it used to be. We’ll be adding some functions in the weeks to come, but in the meantime you can help spread the word about this site by using any of the bookmarking sites that are represented by icons following each post. Have we missed any?

Comments welcome.

McClelland & Stewart has released artwork for its reissue of the New Canadian Library edition of Emily of New Moon, due out on 4 December 2007!

This edition will precede the NCL reissue of Anne of Green Gables, due out in late January 2008.

from the Toronto Star:

Actress Shirley MacLaine has joined the cast of the Anne of Green Gables television movie.

CTV says the Academy-award winner will play matriarch Amelia Thomas in the film, “Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning.”

MacLaine begins filming this week in southwestern Ontario and shoots through the end of the month.

The “Terms of Endearment” star joins U.S. actress Barbara Hershey, who plays the grown-up Anne Shirley, and Hannah Endicott-Douglas, who plays the young Anne Shirley.

The movie, a prequel to the original miniseries “Anne of Green Gables,” is set to air on CTV in 2008.

CTV says MacLaine’s character pops up in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first novel but has been shaped into a principal character for the film.

Thomas is a wealthy, powerful and unlikable widow who runs the prosperous lumber town, Marysville, N.B.

After taking in her daughter-in-law Louisa Thomas, played by Rachel Blanchard, Amelia’s miserable temperament is transformed for the better by imaginative and playful Anne Shirley.

See also Canoe’s article on this casting addition.

The following article was published a few days ago on CTV.ca:

New ‘Anne of Green Gables’ coming to CTV

Updated Tue. Oct. 16 2007 10:27 AM ET

CTV.ca

The perennially freckled and red-haired Anne Shirley will return to television in 2008, with a new three-hour movie set to debut on CTV.

Actor Hannah Endicott-Douglas is shown in a handout photo. (CTV)
“To say that we are excited about bringing the Anne of Green Gables franchise to CTV would be an understatement!” said Kevin Sullivan, president of Sullivan Entertainment.

“Ivan Fecan and I created the “Avonlea/Family Hour” franchise on CBC in the early 90s and together we made it into one of Canada’s most successful weekly television events.”

In addition to the film, CTV has acquired the entire “Anne” catalogue, including the original 1985 mini-series.

The movie is a prequel to the “Anne of Green Gables” series, entitled “Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning.”

Picked from over 1,000 hopefuls, Toronto native Hannah Endicott-Douglas will play the new Anne.

The search for the star included an open casting call on YouTube and a cross-Canada audition tour that lasted for three months. Sullivan, an award winning filmmaker, personally selected the winner.

Endicott-Douglas has also appeared in “The Good Witch” and “Samantha: An American Girl.”

Academy Award nominee Barbara Hershey will also appear in the film as Anne later in life, in her 50s. Rachel Blanchard also stars as Louise.

Sullivan has written a completely new screenplay for the three hour movie, which follows Anne’s life before arriving at Green Gables. Sullivan is also directing and executive producing the feature.

“Anne of Green Gables is an enduring and endearing worldwide franchise,” said Susanne Boyce, President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc.

“We welcome Anne with great respect and look forward to the world premiere of ‘A New Beginning’ on CTV.”

CTV’s acquisition includes:

• Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (TV Movie, three hours)
• Anne of Green Gables; Anne of Green Gables – The Sequel; Anne of Green Gables – The Continuing Story (Mini-Series; 13 hours)
• Road to Avonlea (TV Series; 91 hours)
• Road to Avonlea Christmas (TV Movie; two hours)
• Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series (TV Series; 13 hours)
• Anne, Journey to Green Gables (Animated Feature, two hours)
• The Magic Flute Diaries (Feature, two hours)
• Mozart Decoded – The Magic Flute Diaries Documentary (Documentary, 1 hour)
• Anne Trilogy Documentary (Documentary, 1 hour)

“Anne of Green Gables” and “Road to Avonlea” have been broadcast in over 140 countries around the world and have won numerous awards including four Emmys, the George Foster Peabody Award, CableAce Awards and numerous Gemini’s.

“Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel” originally aired in 1987 and has remained the highest rated mini-series ever to air in Canada with an audience of 5.4 million.

Also, the following article appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix:

 

Three-month search yields new Anne of Green Gables

 

Maria Kubacki, CanWest News Service

Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Her red hair may come from a bottle but Hannah Endicott-Douglas is a natural for her new role as Anne Shirley.

The 12-year-old blonde actress from Toronto has been chosen to play one of Canada’s most beloved cultural icons in a prequel to the original Anne of Green Gables mini-series starring Megan Follows. It’s a series she is intimately familiar with, having played out scenes from it with her older sister, Vivien, since she was a toddler.

“I’m a very big Anne fan. I have been for a very long time,” said Hannah in a telephone interview from her home in Toronto on the eve of her first day of shooting.

It was Vivien who usually played Anne, while Hannah portrayed the supporting characters.

Now it’s Hannah’s turn to be Anne, and 16-year-old Vivien will play Violetta, a character at odds with Anne in the beginning.

Hannah has read L.M. Montgomery’s classic novel and says what she likes about Canada’s favourite fictional orphan is “her way to look on the bright side, her imagination and her fiery temper.”

The Grade 8 student, who dyed her hair for the role, was crowned the new Anne after a three-month search by Sullivan Entertainment, which included an open casting call on YouTube, a cross-Canada audition tour and nearly 1,000 audition submissions from Canada, the U.S., England and Australia.

“She was the one who had the shine,” said writer/producer/director Kevin Sullivan, the man behind the original series. “She’s spunky, she’s got a tender heart,” said Sullivan in a telephone interview.

But Hannah — whose previous television credits include The Good Witch and Samantha: An American Girl Holiday — also had a quality Sullivan saw in Follows, and in the young Sarah Polley (who starred in another Sullivan Entertainment series, Road to Avonlea). “This kid is a pro,” he said.

Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning is based on an original screenplay by Sullivan and focuses on Anne’s life before she came to Green Gables. The screenplay draws on elements in Montgomery’s novel but Sullivan admits he had to make a lot of it up. “It’s a three-hour movie.”

Hannah plays the young orphan, and Emmy and Golden-Globe winning actress Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady, Hannah and Her Sisters) portrays a 50-something Anne looking back on her life.

Rachel Blanchard (7th Heaven, Clueless) plays Louisa Thomas, a character mentioned in Montgomery’s novel; additional casting will be announced soon.

Production has begun and the movie will premiere on CTV in 2008 in time for the 100th anniversary of the publication of Montgomery’s novel.

According to the website The Casting Workbook, Hannah Endicott-Douglas has been cast as Anne Shirley in Sullivan Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning. Endicott-Douglas has appeared in Samantha: An American Girl Holiday (2004).

Also, the Ontario District Council offers a production summary for the telefilm, listing some of the key crew members for the production.

We will post more information about this film once it becomes available.

The LMMRG has a snappy new look, and it also now includes the content that was part of the old wiki, including the bibliography and filmography. Because the blog’s main page is now found at http://lmmresearch.org/ instead of http://lmmresearch.org/blog/, RSS subscriptions will need to be upgraded. I’m still tinkering with the design, and comments are welcome.

There is a one-page article about Martha MacIsaac in August’s issue of Famous (a magazine offered free at giant movie theatres across Canada). MacIsaac played the leading role in Emily of New Moon (1998-1999; 2002-2003) and now appears in the movie Superbad, which opens later this month. Thanks to Elizabeth MacLeod for bringing the article to our attention.