Flannery O'Connor and Charles Williams: Coming to the Big (and Small) Screen

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Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes in Wise Blood
I just ran across the Facebook page for a television and film production company called Good Country Pictures. This small company is dedicated to bringing the works of Flannery O'Connor and Charles Williams to the screen, and currently is working on producing a TV series based on O'Connor's short stories, and making a film of Williams's novel, All Hallows Eve. Here's how they describe their mission:
Good Country Pictures is dedicated to producing TV and film projects that help their audience rediscover 'mystery and manners.' GCP presently owns the TV and film option rights to most of the works of Flannery O'Connor and Charles Williams. Already underway is a feature film of O'Connor's 'The Violent Bear It Away' and a TV series of her short stories. A film treatment of Charles Williams' 'All Hallows' Eve' (1941) is also in progress.
I've recently written a bit about Flannery O'Connor (there's lots more I'd like to say, when time allows); if you visit Good Country Pictures' Facebook page, you'll find links to various resources online that will help you learn more about both these writers. A number of Flannery O'Connor's works have been adapted for television (not very successfully); they are also the favorite subject of amateur filmmakers -- just take a look on YouTube and you'll find plenty of videos made by students, indies, and other O'Connor enthusiasts. By far the best made and best known adaptation is John Huston's feature film of Wise Blood, in which a very young Brad Dourif was brilliantly cast as Hazel Motes (the Criterion edition is available on DVD).

Charles Williams novelist
Charles Williams,
Inkling & novelist
Those who don't know the works of Charles Williams are missing a treat. Inklings fans will know that Williams was a member of that literary coterie, the only one of the group who did not teach at one of the great English universities. C. S. Lewis was a great admirer. Williams is best known for his metaphysical novels, which are weirdly surreal yet rooted in a profoundly Christian worldview. (Williams also wrote poetry and at least two works of theology.) There's really no way to describe his books adequately; probably the best one to begin with is War in Heaven, which has to do with the Holy Grail, found in an English country church, and the struggle between good and evil forces to possess it. I'm not aware of any screen adaptations of Williams's novels, but they would all be wonderful as films.

I'll be interested in seeing what Good Country Pictures produces.

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