challenge approved

We had the Kylie Pride & Prejudice Challenge, when the slow people caught onto the fabulousness of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (and yes, I am biting my tongue very hard to avoid adding a gratuitous “typical Queenslanders behind the times” joke here), in which they tried to catch up, and I had a convenient excuse to rewatch the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, plus the original novel and another adaptation or two – I’ll blog a bit more about this next week.

But the really exciting thing is Pemberley Digital (the real life production company, not the LBD universe Darcy-led company) have announced their next adaptation….

A vlog-style modernisation of Jane Austen’s Emma (release date yet to be announced) – you can find Emma’s YouTube channel here. So of course, we need to prepare ourselves properly. And how would we do so? With a challenge, of course!! Taking a leaf from Kylie’s book, I thought we could do several “levels” of challenge, depending on time and life and enthusiasm.

The Duh-Goes-Without-Saying edition: Subscribe to the Emma Approved YouTube channel.

The Catch Me Up edition: Read Jane Austen’s Emma – I would suggest we aim to be four or five chapters in by the end of the month, ready for the first wave of videos.

The Clueless edition: So firstly, let me start by saying the first person to tell me Clueless is nearly 20 years old is getting slapped. Now we have that out of the way. Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, is one of the best known Emma modernisations/adaptations. For this challenge, read the book as above, and get a feel for what a modern twist might look like by watching (or rewatching) Clueless.

(it would appear I need to clean my iPad screen)

The Complete edition: How about read the book, watch Clueless, and watch either/both the movie (there are a couple of versions, one with Kate Beckinsdale, one with Gwyneth Paltrow) or the BBC mini-series (which I’m told is superb).

The Bonus Round: come play over at Tumblr (track the tag Emma Approved for some wonderful discussion and fanart – plus the Tumblr fan community is totally on top of all the transmedia, so it’s a super easy way to see what is happening in the story away from YouTube), and/or follow the characters on Twitter (both Emma and Knightley have accounts already), Pinterest, or Instagram.

So who’s in? I haven’t included a deadline this time, as we have no info on when we can expect Emma Approved to start, but there are already lots of great comments and theories flying around on Tumblr. It’ll be interesting to see what develops!