(CNN)It’s a braver act than marrying for love, more risky than running away with Mr. Wickham, and plainer than Anne Elliot adapting Jane Austen’s beloved, essential works for the screen. Yet, filmmakers keep trying. There are modern retellings, such as “Clueless,” where Emma Woodhouse was dropped in Beverly Hills and she was dressed in Ala?a. And this summer’s “Fire Island,” which is a gay-centric version of “Pride and Prejudice.” Some retell the text closely, such as Whit Stillman’s raucous “Love and Friendship” and 1995’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which made a generation of Colin Firth-ass-Darcy-haters. You risk Austen’s ire if you make a poor adaptation. Take “Persuasion”, which was a huge hit before its release in July. It featured snippets from modernized dialogue that cut Austen’s original text. It’s not an easy task to condense volumes of social criticism, sparkling dialogue, and characters so beloved that an entire archetype has been created for them. These films often succeed and reveal new layers to Austen’s canonical works. They are a great way to encourage Austen’s many readers to discuss their works. Read MoreCNN consulted Austen scholars and devotees to find out what they look for in an Austen adaptation. We also explain why it can be so difficult to translate Austen’s words for the screen. Austen’s stories are the epitome of romance. They have all the hallmarks: A disapproving family, mismatched partners, hate-to love relationships, long-awaited reunions and swoon-worthy declarations about love. These tropes have been in almost every romance story since. These tropes have been in almost every romance story since Jane Austen. What Regency romance is still popular 200 years after Jane Austen’s death. Davis and Rodriguez said in an email to CNN that complex interpersonal relationships will not go out of fashion. Austen adaptations have been nominated for many Emmys and Oscars over the years. They also made millions and convinced millions of viewers that Mr. Darcy is the best choice of suitors. We saw a lot of Austen adaptations in the ’90s, including the Firth-starring film “Pride and Prejudice,” Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Emma”, and “Sense and Sensibility” starring Emma Thompson. There were also other Regency-era stories that are similar to what we have today, despite the huge popularity of “Bridgerton.” Austen’s popularity is worldwide — see the Bollywood-inspired film, “Bride & Prejudice”, and “Mr. Pride vs. Miss Prejudice, one of many Austen adaptations featuring Asian protagonists. Austen’s novels often included love and marriage in their plots. However, the author did not always portray marriage as the happy ending that her heroines desired. Austen’s female characters are acutely aware that marriage is both a financial decision as well as a family obligation. Inger Brodey, associate professor of English, comparative literature and English at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, stated that Austen’s women are often ambivalent regarding what it would mean for them independence if they married, even though they love their partners. Brodey said that Austen is a way for readers today to romanticize about soul-mates and also maintain their self-respect. Brodey stated that she would prefer a film that didn’t feel indebted the original novel. CNN interviewed Austenites who agreed that an Austen adaptation must retain the spirit of Austen’s work, including her incisive depths and unmatched wit. Devoney Looser is a Regents professor of English and author of “The Making of Jane Austen.” It’s not easy to achieve that balance of characters and content in two hours. Looser said that any Austen adaptation is a success if it makes me think, or rethink any part of the original. Take “Clueless,” an ’90s retelling about “Emma” that is seemingly different but still thematically faithful. It’s not the most accurate Austen adaptation, as Cher is the lead and her closet has software that coordinates outfits. However, Brody and William Galperin both agreed that Amy Heckerling’s film is an excellent example of a film that modernizes parts of the story and retains Austen’s spirit. Even Austen scholars can’t deny that “Clueless,” a “Emma” adaptation of the story, transports the story to the ’90s Beverly Hills. It’s almost as if! “Clueless,” which “celebrates a certain type of autonomy, playfulness, and solidarity among women,” is what William Galperin, an English professor at Rutgers University, and author of “The Historical Austen,” said. Like “Emma”, “Clueless,” is more concerned about Cher’s growth than her romantic escapades. Even those plotlines help to strengthen her character. Brodey stated that films that modernize, modernize, or otherwise remix Austen in a new culture, time, or place are paradoxically more able to show new aspects of Austen than films which try to follow her novels more slavishly. Even “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” found a parallel between “settling in” and zombiism. However, Austen’s stories are enriched by the mundane happenings at English manors among a few local families. Galperin stated that Austen is trying to show that everything we do in our daily lives has many implications. It doesn’t necessarily have to involve large things like power struggles and fights on a grand kind of geopolitical scale. Everyday life is full of complexity. The better the films are at capturing that complexity, the better. “Where Austen adaptations fail” Condensing hundreds pages of rich text — full of social critique, beautiful phrasing, and revelatory inner thoughts — into a film of two hours or even a miniseries of six hours is no easy feat. Galperin stated that some filmmakers concentrate on the most obvious story strand: the marriage plot. While relationships are important in Austen’s novels they are less important than the marriage plot, Galperin stated that the marriage plot is often just a “scaffolding” or a skeleton of a story. He said that the meat is in the narrative episodes, which reveal her characters’ true intentions. Netflix’s “Persuasion”, which was released in 2016, has sparked heated debate about its script updates and its protagonist’s tendency toward mugging for the camera. Many critics feel that some adaptations lack the depth and ambivalence found in Austen’s books. “Persuasion” tells the story of Anne Elliot, an unmarried woman (played by Dakota Johnson in the latest version), and her former partner Captain Wentworth. It also addresses familial duty, conformity, and precious independence. These themes often rank second to romance. Galperin stated that the novel is very good at demonstrating the tension between love and duty, while the film often focuses on romance at the expense or social satire. “Why Austen’s stories will live forever” Even if new versions and adaptations of “Persuasion”, and other classics, aren’t always successful in interpreting Austen’s work, Looser stated that they’re still worth making — at minimum, they’ll attract new audiences to fall for Darcy, Sanditon’s beachside bliss, and the resourceful and cunning Lady Susan. Looser stated that if we don’t adapt Austen’s stories from the nineteenth century and appeal to new generations of viewers, these texts will cease to exist. “So I am all for adaptations that use Austen’s material as inspiration and make their own mark on the material, rather than using her originals as blueprints to be religiously copied. The comedy “Fire Island”, like the book “Pride and Prejudice”, is a sharp critique on classism. “And spinning new yarns from Austen’s original works opens her world up to figures her books don’t represent, such as people of color or LGBTQ protagonists. “Fire Island” is based on the loose framework of “Pride and Prejudice” and tells the story of two Asian American gay men. It also focuses on the racism and classism they face from White gay men and their relationships. Both “Sanditon”, and “Persuasion,” cast people of color in Austen’s world. This was in an era when racism was codified. This decision has sparked debate as these projects don’t address racism in their fictional worlds. There are many ways to tell an Austenian story today. You can either bring it into the present, break the fourth wall, or give the Bennet sisters swords in order to kill zombies. This has received a mixed reception from critics. Although it’s impossible for every Austen fan to be happy, scholars and readers agree that Austen adaptations will almost always find a love interest.