Blithedale Well Suited to the Big Screen

First of all, I've loved reading what everybody else has had to say about this topic. This really is a fun one to think about, and you have all done a great job with your responses.

Secondly, I think Blithedale would be great as a movie - I would love to see an adaptation. I don't think it would be that hard to incorporate an unobtrusive narrator into the action. I do think that the novel would have to be simplified and also that more action would have to be incorporated into the story. But the strength of Hawthorne's characters and the complex plot would translate onto the screen and give an adaptation a good chance of success. The director would have to give much thought how to use setting, music, and camera angle to achieve the mood and feeling of the novel. I can't remember who suggested it, but I agree that it would be important to give the sense of Coverdale's voyeurism through use of the camera. I get visions of Hitchcock's Rear Window when I imagine how this could be done, but I'm sure that we could be even more sophisticated in our approach due to modern technology.

Here are my votes for the cast:
Coverdale - Tom Hanks
Holingsworth - Gabriel Byrne
Zenobia - Meryl Streep or Demi Moore
Priscilla - Sarah Michelle Geller