Academy Award Winner

As in some of the Jane Austin movies, it seems there is no problem in procuring the country (forest, fields & farmhouses) and 1841 city settings. Even Coverdale's hermitage and the "deep pool" in the river should be easy to duplicate.
One of the challenges would be whether to modernize the language or to quote the book verbatim. The movie would need a narrator. Just how much this narrator would say (editing would be a nightmare) or how much explaining he could do in a short span of a movie is another challenge.
The director would spend much time on the interchanges of conversations between the main characters and panning in on facial expressions, which are so vividly described in the book. He would have to insure that the flower in Zenobia's hair is given its prominent role and that Hollingsworth's singular purpose of mind is properly explained.
This coluld be a great mystery romance and gets a preproduction four stars. ****
Starring
Tom Hanks as Coverdale
Harrison Ford as Hollingsworth
Meryl Streep as Zenobia
Calista Flockhart as Priscella