Oliver Twist (2005 Film) - Production and Adaptation

Production and Adaptation

In Twist by Polanski, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, Roman Polanski discusses his decision to make yet another screen adaptation of the Dickens novel. Following The Pianist, he was anxious to make a film his children could enjoy. He realized nearly forty years had passed since Oliver Twist had been adapted for a feature film and felt it was time for a new version. Screenwriter Ronald Harwood, with whom he had collaborated on The Pianist, welcomed the opportunity to work on the first Dickens project in his career.

For authenticity, all scenes featuring pickpocket skills were choreographed by stage pickpocket James Freedman and magician Martyn Rowland.

The film was shot in Prague, Beroun, and Žatec in the Czech Republic.

Like David Lean in his 1948 film version of the novel, Polanski and Harwood entirely omitted the Maylie family from their film. Unlike Lean, they also omitted Monks, as well as the entire subplot of a conspiracy to defraud Oliver of the inheritance money that his father left him. In the Polanski film, in a departure from the novel, Fagin's intentions toward Oliver become murderous; he and Sikes plot together to actually kill the boy.