According to the July 26th issue of Variety, Natalie Portman will play Jane Austen as a young woman in the upcoming film BECOMING JANE. The article, which details British producer Tony Garnett’s recent and upcoming projects, states that BECOMING JANE is one of two films that Garnett has chosen to work on in the next year.

Garnett and his development topper, Britt Harrison, have trawled through more than 600 projects and come up with two to shoot next year. Natalie Portman is attached to play the young Jane Austen in “Becoming Jane.” Kirk Jones will direct “Eddie the Eagle,” about the hapless British ski-jumper who became a folk hero at the 1988 Olympics.

As of now, this has not been confirmed. The AustenBlog staff will be sure to keep its readers abreast of any breaking news.

Times Online has an interview with Working Title chairman Eric Fellner, who is the envy of many Janeites because he gets to view dailies from the filming of P&P3.

ERIC FELLNER has a big wide-screen television in his office. It is not executive vanity, but a tool of the trade. He’s watching the final takes from shooting on the new film version of Pride and Prejudice, starring British cinema’s hottest property, Keira Knightley.

Fellner checks the film’s progress most days. His company, Working Title, is producing it, and he and co-chairman Tim Bevan are anxious to ensure that work is on track and producing the type of footage that could bring them a hit. They like what they have seen so far, but admit that film production is an uncertain business.

If AustenBlog’s search stats are any indication, interest in the film is quite high amongst both Janeites and fans of the cast members.

EDITED to add: KeiraWatch turned up an article at the Beeb with some more detail about filming at Basildon Park in West Berkshire, including information on submitting yourself for consideration to play an extra in the film.

Rediff.com has an interview with Gurinder Chadha, the director of the upcoming film BRIDE AND PREJUDICE. In it, she describes her experiences making the film, as well as her invitation by the Jane Austen Society to discuss her plans. It seems that the film is being very well-received by Janeites.

The news that I was making Bride And Prejudice was welcomed with broad grins by everyone because it’s such a cheeky thing to do.

The AustenBlog staff is looking forward to viewing this film, which is scheduled to be released October 8th in the UK and India, and in late December in the US.

The Aurora Theatre Company has announced its fall season, which includes the West Coast premiere of “Emma”. This particular production sports a cast of only five, which makes us here at AustenBlog Research Facilities, Ltd. wonder which five they’ve picked - Box Hill wouldn’t be the same without all our favorites!

Radio Sargam Online reports that the British show GMTV raved over the film after showing some clips on air, claiming BRIDE AND PREJUDICE is “destined to become a smash. The site also provides their own review of the film, which isn’t so positive.

AustenBlog Central certainly welcomes any more reviews to this increasingly mixed bag!

KeiraWatch, a LiveJournal community that is to Keira Knightley as AustenBlog is to Jane, directed us to some juicy and just plain weird P&P3 filming news.

In the first item, Contactmusic.com reports that Keira Knightley has some bruises from Donald Sutherland’s enthusiastic on-set greetings.

Also, the IMDB message forums have a report from an individual who worked at the hotel where the cast stayed during Groombridge filming.

We also turned up an article on the BBC site that says Wilton House in Wiltshire was used for Pemberley interiors. Filming there was last week. The article says the house was used for filming SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; from the photos, we are thinking it was Norland. Isn’t that the room where Marianne asked Fanny if she had counted all the silver?

Susanna Clarke, whose novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell has been compared to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, was inspired by Jane Austen:

Originally the novel was set in the late 18th century, but Clarke found herself gravitating toward the early 19th century — toward Jane Austen’s world.

“Once the novel was set there,” she says, “I could draw on her observations about social behaviour and use that as a basis, which was great.”

There is definitely a sense of Austen in the book, a satirical rapier hidden behind the cushions, and a host of well-drawn secondary characters, particularly the pompous ones. (”Reddish-brown is such a fickle colour,” one aesthete notes about Strange’s hair. “It has no wear in it.”)

The Telegraph reports that Higham Park, a mostly-Georgian house where Jane Austen once visited (along with Mozart and Ian Fleming), has been restored by two local women, who did much of the work themselves.

This Is Bath reports that BRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the Bollywood musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, will be shown at the Jane Austen Festival at Bath in late September, a few weeks before its official premiere. The article reports that 40 tickets will be given to anyone attending in Regency costume; call the Jane Austen Centre for details.

The BBC has some more information on this new production (which includes a picture of John Leslie, who will play Wickham) as does The Scotsman. (Rula Lenska is playing Mrs. Bennet! And presumably Sylvester McCoy is Mr. Bennet.) The crack research staff at AustenBlog Research and Testing Labs, Ltd. dug up some links to the individual venues:

• Edinburgh Playhouse
• The Theatre Royal, Windsor
• The Palace Theatre, Westcliff (no listing for P&P yet; we suggest that you call the box office for information)
• Greenwich Theatre, London

If any AustenBlog readers see this play, send in a report! We’d love to hear all about it, and share it with our readers.

The new book Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach, a book of essays about trips taken by the author over the period of a year, includes a chapter related to Jane Austen.

Seven more chapters ensue, whisking us off to Kyoto to learn about traditional Japanese culture; to Florence to take a course called “Art in Florence”; to Winchester to walk in the footsteps of Jane Austen; to Havana to meet Cuban artists and average Cubanos; to Avignon to study and admire French landscape architecture; to Prague to engage in a creative-writing seminar; and to a Scottish sheep farm near Loch Lomond to learn the rudiments of training Border collies to herd sheep.

A band called One Ring Zero has produced an album of reinvented klezmer music with lyrics by some of today’s best-known writers. The author of the review muses that Jane Austen would have been a pretty good addition to the august company.

This brings up an interesting point: can writers of novels and poems write decent pop lyrics? I imagine that anything William Faulkner or Hemingway might have produced would not even pass muster, while Charles Dickens or Jane Austen might have somehow become the Brill Buildings of their times.

We love that idea.

Miramax has shelved a couple of previously scheduled films, but BRIDE AND PREJUDICE will open on Christmas as scheduled.

And the company has three films debuting on Christmas day: Mike Nichols’ Proof, Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice and Lasse Hallstrom’s An Unfinished Life.

It would be interesting if the film does well a few years after Harvey “John Thorpe” Weinstein shelved the big-screen Northanger Abbey project because, in his oh-so-humble opinion, the Jane Austen renaissance was over. Had he consulted the crack staff at AustenBlog Research and Testing Labs, Ltd., at their fabulous high-tech secret location, he might have been disabused of that notion. Or maybe not.

Peterborough Today reports that the transformation of the Lincolnshire town of Stamford into Meryton is well underway:

THE streets of Stamford are being taken back in time as movie magic sweeps the town.

Filming on the Hollywood remake of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice is now just weeks away.

The blockbuster will see Hollywood stars Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland and Dame Judi Dench film in the town.

The stars, who were spotted at nearby Burghley House, in Stamford, earlier this month, are due to return to film at the beginning of September.

But, before the stars can take their places and the film can roll, artists have spent the last three weeks in the historic town, taking it back 200 years.

St George’s Square and St Mary’s Street will become the fictitious town of Meryton, in Hertfordshire, the home of heroine Elizabeth Bennet, played by Keira Knightley in the film.

Stamford Arts Centre was the first of the town’s buildings to get the Hollywood treatment, transforming the Georgian building in St Mary’s Street into a dance hall.

Other shooting locations are revealed: (more…)

A reminder that “The Jane Austen Collection,” adaptations of Jane Austen’s six novels made by the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s, was released today. The series have all been digitally remastered for this DVD release.

A BBC article about the disappointing box office for the live-action THUNDERBIRDS film mentions the continuing whispers of poor preview audience reactions to BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON:

Some press reports suggested that Working Title’s forthcoming romantic comedy Wimbledon had been delayed for reshooting, and that Bridget Jones sequel Edge of Reason had allegedly received “mixed” test screenings.

But these reports were “nonsense”, the company said.

Its spokesman said Edge of Reason had received a better response than the original Bridget Jones film, and more positive feedback in the US than the hugely successful Notting Hill.

The article mentions that Working Title, production company of both BRIDGET JONES films, is looking to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE to raise its fortunes.

“There’s always time for tea.” - Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (who should know)

Bollywood is a profitable industry in its own right, but it has long been craving a spot in the international limelight, alongside its American equivalent of Hollywood. According to sify.com, BRIDE AND PREJUDICE may possibly serve as the missing link Bollywood is looking for:

So is Bollywood doomed in Hollywood? Not quite. A glimmer of hope comes in the form of Gurinder Chadha’s masala movie Bride & Prejudice. If that works when it opens in October, even half as well as the director’s Bend It Like Beckham, Hindi cinema will finally find a voice in the mainstream international arena. . . . Would Bride & Prejudice be that foot into the door for Bollywood that we’ve all been waiting for?

The Advertiser-Tribune of Ohio has an article about the Besse Letter Collection, part of Heidelberg College’s Beeghly Library, in which a volume of Jane Austen’s letters is included with other famous and not-so-famous folks.

Back then, letter writing was an art, he added. The books containing correspondence were to comprise a working collection, able to be a resource for students, faculty and others who used the library. Krakora said that the collection was allowed to be, and has been, added to over the years, with the stipulation that they be in English.

Krakora said that Besse had an eclectic collection, including statesmen, artists and literary people.

“Those of Jane Austen and the letters of Beethoven,” Krakora said. “Their letters tell how they think and what they think. It is a broad collection, the gem of our library.”

Peterborough Today reports that Burghley House, which served as Rosings Park during filming of the upcoming PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, is now being used to film THE THREE MUSKETEERS. The article tells us:

MR Darcy would be aghast to see musketeers fighting on the staircases of Burghley House.

But that’s exactly what took place at the stately home over the weekend as filming of the second major movie in the space of weeks got underway.

The article goes on to give further details about the filming of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE at Burghley House: (more…)

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE is mentioned in a New York Daily News article about upcoming independent film releases.

AUSTEN GOES BOLLYWOOD

Jane Austen’s most popular novel, “Pride and Prejudice,” memorably adapted into a 1995 miniseries, gets a Bollywood makeover in Gurinder Chadha’s “Bride and Prejudice” (Keira Knightley stars in a traditional version next year).