In news that seems slightly less likely to provoke the “but what about the boys?!” brigade than the average all-female reboot, Deadline reports that an all-girls film version of Lord Of The Flies is in the works. The film is being developed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the directing team behind such dysfunctional family dramas as Bee Season and What Maisie Knew.
Still, there’s dysfunction, and then there’s Lord Of The Flies: William Golding’s classic novel is a frequent contender for most pessimistic novel ever written about the human condition, featuring a tribe of young English boys quickly descending into savagery after being stranded on an island. It’s been adapted for film (and/or episodes of The Simpsons) a number of times, including in 1963 and 1990.
There’s definitely some fascinating potential in the idea of flipping the genders of the book’s cast, exploring the dynamics of young girls going mad with power and isolation instead of young boys. It doesn’t hurt that McGehee and Siegel have both proven adept in the past at telling the stories of young women, suggesting they’ll be able to avoid the dumber, more knee-jerk pitfalls such a project might provoke.