Screenhead

Mildred Pierce is one of my favorite Joan Crawford movies because the movie is a good drama and mystery.  It’s a story about survival with lots of curves.  The movie is based on a book of the same title,   but was changed significantly in adaptation for film. Michael Curtis, wonderful and versatile, directed this film for Warner Bros.  The film won several Oscars including Best Actress for Crawford.  It catapulted her career back on the rails after she left MGM and arrived at Warner Bros. 

Of late,  it was announced that recent Oscar winner Kate Winslet is attached to star in a miniseries based on the “Mildred Pierce” novel.   For some this might come as a surprise that Winslet would turn to cable television after winning an Oscar.  Perhaps not, if you consider that cable television has been producing sure fire productions that would otherwise never get made as theatrical releases such as Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore’s Grey Gardens and now Mildred Pierce. 

As for the present production of Mildred Pierce, Todd Haynes is writing and directing the miniseries.  Powers that be say HBO is the lead contender to get the series. 

The novel was written in 1941, it concerns housewife who gets into the restaurant business, an enterprise that leads to backstabbing, romance and murder.  The story is told chronological as Pierce grows powerful and old while the Warner Bros. movie is told in flashback never showing the aging process or the power in Pierce’s character. It will be interesting to see how this miniseries will be played out.