For me, the past few years have offered a cornucopia of Jane Austen film and television adaptations. I began blogging when the
Jane Austen Book Club was being filmed. In 2007, PBS offered Jane Austen season, and I was in seventh heaven watching the remakes of
Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and
Northanger Abbey. In 2008 we viewed
Sense and Sensibility and
Miss Austen Regrets, and 2009 gave us
Lost in Austen. Earlier in 2010 we watched
Emma. What joy!
In January of 2011 we can expect the theatrical release of
Prada to Nada, a modern Latino take on Sense and Sensibility, and there are rumblings that
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will actually be made. But then, I fear, the future of Jane Austen film making will hit a dry spell.
Oh, book publishers are printing plenty of Jane Austen sequels and prequels and mysteries, and the like. Excellent anthologies, such as
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Authors on Why We Read Jane Austen, have been released. Collateral series, such as Amanda Vickery's
At Home With the Georgians, provide us with insights about life during the time of Jane Austen, but ... what does the cinematic future hold for Janeites who simply can't get enough of Jane Austen's writing and her characters? Here is my wish list, if producers are paying attention:
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| Rachel Hurd Wood as Catherine? |
A remake of Northanger Abbey: Let's finally do justice to Jane's fine Gothic tale, and give this novel enough time to develop cinematically in a two-part, four-hour series. Let's take advantage of Henry Tilney's wit and young Catherine's wide-eyed innocence, and leave the overblown Gothic scenes to the first two inadequate NA adaptations.
The casting of Henry Tilney would be crucial, although I did fall a little in love with J.J. Feild in the woefully short 2007 ITV remake.
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| Minnie Driver as Lady Susan? |
Lady Susan: I think a film with
Jane's anti-heroine at its center would be quite popular in this cynical age. More
Dangerous Liaisons than
Persuasion, Lady Susan and her machinations will strike a chord with modern audiences, who will see Jane Austen's talent for creating vivid characters in a new light.
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| Cassandra's drawings |
The History of England: Young Jane's irreverent chronicle of the
History of England would be a delightful basis for a tongue in cheek cartoon in the tradition of South Park or ( for those of you who are old enough to remember)
Rocky and Bullwinkle, which you can see on YouTube.
Using Cassandra's drawings, I can see this short book translated into a rollicking 1/2 hour of fun that is sure to go viral with history fans.
What say you?
