Walt Disney Studios has bought the rights to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. They’re going to re-imaging the elderly, pre-WW2 British character as “a young, modern day and possibly American city girl”. From Dark Horizons:

Jennifer Garner is set to produce through her Vandalia Films and will likely star in the new adaptation. Mark Frost, who co-created “Twin Peaks” and penned the “Fantastic Four” movies, will be penning the script.

The changeover is rather disturbing to say the least. The entire point of the character is that her small English village life and kind, unassuming outward appearance hides a sharp intellect with a keen understanding of human nature’s darkest proclivities. If they do this kind of change, what next? Turning Christie’s other great detective Hercule Poirot into a hunky Argentinian barista with a loft in Tribeca?

Why trash the name? Why not make a new character inspired by Miss Marple? Because the mainstream American film industry hates imagination and originality.

This isn’t a sign of a dying culture. It’s proof of a dead, rotten one. Absolutely disgusting.