# Jennifer Garner is the new Miss Marple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523 "2011-03-30T16:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/1 "2011-03-30T16:32:46Z")
There’s a rumour flying around the internet that Miss Marple is being rebooted, with Jennifer Garner (Elektra) cast in the lead role. To me, this sounds almost as unlikey as Justin Bieber playing Poirot. Can anyone dig up a reliable cite to confirm or deny this? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/2 "2011-03-30T16:49:20Z")
Turns out that it was mentioned seriously, but [the deal is not complete](http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/03/30/miss-marple-reboot-jennifer-garner/). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/3 "2011-03-30T17:16:09Z")
It is one of the oddest ideas I’ve heard in a long time. Hope the deal falls through. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/4 "2011-03-30T17:19:58Z")
Considering that Christie wasn’t fit to change the ribbon on Marsh’s typewriter, I’d be okay with _nobody_ being the “new” Miss Marple (or the “new” Hercule Poirot, for that matter), at least until Roderick Alleyn has received his due. That said, isn’t Miss Marple supposed to be _ancient_, right from the beginning of her investigative career? ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/5 "2011-03-30T17:21:58Z")
It does sound a little odd, but then again - there was that great, British, 3 part series of Sherlock Holmes with a very young actor playing Sherlock at a younger age. Maybe the plan is to show Miss Marple in her early years? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/6 "2011-03-30T17:39:11Z")
Oh, _hell_ no. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/7 "2011-03-30T17:40:34Z")
Or use makeup to make her look old. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/8 "2011-03-30T17:45:30Z")
It’s not obvious from the title, but there’s already a thread on this: > **[From Hollywood, "old people suck"](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=602637)** > > So, Hollywood is updating Agatha Christies Mrs. Marple. The person they have chosen to play the role of the little old spinster who is also solves crime in her spare time, is Jennifer Garner. Of course, this version will have an edge to it. This... ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/9 "2011-03-30T17:47:01Z")
Unless the last few years have been particularly hard on Jennifer Garner, I always pictured Miss Marple as a somewhat more mature woman. On the other hand, when you have an actor named Garner playing a detective, good things can happen. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/10 "2011-03-30T18:20:15Z")
Miss Marple with big puffy bee-stung lips? Eww. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/11 "2011-03-30T18:55:35Z")
Read more into **RealityChuck** ’s link. If you read the original, they are completely reimagining the character as being younger. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/12 "2011-03-30T18:58:49Z")
From the other thread: “Agatha Christie: The writer about Little Old Ladies… who are just about this Little, and just about this Old.” (Inspired by an old ad for Dubonnet. If you remember the ad, you’re Old.) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/13 "2011-03-30T22:07:52Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > It does sound a little odd, but then again - there was that great, British, 3 part series of Sherlock Holmes with a very young actor playing Sherlock at a younger age. Having a young actor playing Sherlock Holmes is actually consistent with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. Although the character has often been depicted as an older man in movies and on TV, he and Watson first meet while still fairly young. I don’t think their ages are stated in _A Study in Scarlet_, but based on [other information in the Holmes canon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes#Life) then Holmes himself might be as young as 20 when he meets Watson. > [@](#): > > Maybe the plan is to show Miss Marple in her early years? This doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. A series about young Hercule Poirot could work, but the entire Miss Marple character is based on her being a seemingly harmless and “fluffy” old lady who is able to solve crimes because she’s observed so much about human nature over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/14 "2011-03-30T22:16:29Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Having a young actor playing Sherlock Holmes is actually consistent with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. Although the character has often been depicted as an older man in movies and on TV, he and Watson first meet while still fairly young. I don’t think their ages are stated in _A Study in Scarlet_, but based on [other information in the Holmes canon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes#Life) then Holmes himself might be as young as 20 when he meets Watson. > > This doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. A series about young Hercule Poirot could work, but the entire Miss Marple character is based on her being a seemingly harmless and “fluffy” old lady who is able to solve crimes because she’s observed so much about human nature over the years. I did like the flashbacks in one of the British TV incarnations, I think it was Geraldine McEwan, that showed a young Miss Marple (a different actress) and her love interest, an unhappily-married army officer who went off and got killed in WWI. It gave her a slightly more interesting back story, and with at least one of the cases there was a parallel to one of the other main characters in the story. But you’re right, the whole point of Miss Marple is that she is a sharp observer, and she has a knack for combining seemingly unrelated bits of information with things out of her past, very deep experience in an English village. Without that deep experience, it’s just some other character. I can sort of see a possibility that they are going to try to show her as a young woman just discovering that she possesses this sort of insight, and what she does with it. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/15 "2011-03-30T22:25:14Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Read more into **RealityChuck** ’s link. If you read the original, they are completely reimagining the character as being younger. They might as well just film a completely original set of stories then. Miss Marple being old (and _really_ old) isn’t incidental to the stories - most of them wouldn’t work with a younger woman. The location’s important too. The stories are full of retired brigadiers and younger sons of the landed gentry. In order to make the stories be about a young Ameircan woman they’d have to well, dump the entire story. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/16 "2011-03-30T22:38:41Z")
Will she be totally badass as well? “That’s an embroiudery needle in your pressure point, dearie. You have five minutes to tell me what you know. Would you like a cup of tea while we talk?” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/17 "2011-03-30T22:40:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Read more into **RealityChuck** ’s link. If you read the original, they are completely reimagining the character as being younger. Except that’s completely fucking retarded. What’s left of the character after this reimagining? It’s like reimagining Santa Claus as a young clean-shaven guy who lives in Florida, hates Christmas, and never gives presents. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/18 "2011-03-30T23:30:21Z")
Why not? As it is, the most recent Miss Marple productions bare very little resemblence to the original Christie stories. Indeed they’re now being based on Christie works that didn’t even included Miss Marple. Eventually all that will remain is the character’s name. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/19 "2011-03-30T23:41:30Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Except that’s completely fucking retarded. > > What’s left of the character after this reimagining? It’s like reimagining Santa Claus as a young clean-shaven guy who lives in Florida, hates Christmas, and never gives presents. The Head of Screenwriting at Metro just called. You’re to report to your bungalow at ten tomorrow morning. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523/20 "2011-03-31T02:11:36Z")
Am I on the new Wallace Beery wrestling picture? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jennifer-garner-is-the-new-miss-marple/576523.md?page=2)