George Orwell on Screen

After years of research and dozens of candid interviews with actors, writers, directors and producers, journalist David Ryan has produced the first authoritative study of George Orwell on film and television. This unique reference work shows what popular culture has made - and continues to make - of a literary genius whose work has never seemed more relevant.

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British author and essayist George Orwell shot to fame with two iconic novels: the anti-Stalinist satire Animal Farm and the dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four.

A few years after his death in 1950, the CIA bankrolled screen adaptations of both novels as Cold War propaganda. Orwell's depiction of a totalitarian police state captivated the media in the 1980s. Today, mounting anxieties about digital surveillance and globalization have made him a hot property in Hollywood.

Drawing on interviews with actors, writers, directors and producers, this book presents the first comprehensive study of Orwell on film and television. Beginning with CBS's 1953 live production of Nineteen Eighty-Four that mirrored the McCarthy witch hunts, the author covers 20 wide-ranging adaptations, documentaries and biopics, including two lost BBC dramatizations from 1965.