Film Adaptations: The Books behind New & Popular Films

Many popular books have been adapted for the big screen, some more successfully than others. Read John Preston’s The Dig before the first session, as we will focus on our thoughts of the novel in the first class. Inspired by one of the most famous modern archeological excavations in Great Britain, Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Set in 1939, John Preston’s novel explores the characters who own the land, help with the excavation (one of which is the author’s aunt), and even those who try to thwart it, set against the backdrop of the approach of WWII. Between the first and second meetings we’ll each watch the Netflix film (starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan) on our own time, and come back together to discuss how well it was adapted in film and how the messages of the book and film relate to each other.