Fulfilling a promise to a friend: for all of us humorless persnickety purists who are secretly dying to snark P&P3 (whether we liked it or not), here’s the place; add your bit in the comments.

WARNING: Here be spoilage! This is mostly for people who have seen the film, or don’t care about being spoiled.

Those who don’t want to read the snark (again, whether or not you liked the film), just don’t click… (more…)

If anyone is wondering about the title, all we have to say is that Police Academy brings back some cool beans memories.

The Boston Herald thinks Matthew McFayden could be a star. (This Beantown girl is trying very hard not to comment on this.)

The Chicago Tribune gears up for the release of P&P3 by modernizing some famous lines from the novel.

The Washington Times seems to like the film.

The San Fransisco Bay Guardian takes some time to snark. We wonder if they’ve been visiting this site recently - some of this stuff looks familiar.

The Christian Science Monitor waxes poetic over the film, with a little wordplay thrown in for fun.

USA Today talks about making Pride and Prejudice accessible to today’s audiences.

Forget New Age music and New Wave cinema. It’s the New Darcy.

The Cincinnati CityBeat is a loyal member of the “Keira Kamp”.

The New Yorker plays favorites too: they like Austen best.

The MIT Tech thinks there’s no question as to whether you should like it.

And the moral we get from all this? Crtics are just normal people like us. They get to have divided opinions too.

In other news, “Keira Kamp” and “Matthew Mania” shirts will be available at the AustenBlog Store shortly. (Not really, but we can pretend, right?)

(Thanks also to Lorraine for sending us the Washington Times article!)

Alert Janeite Kate Allan wrote to tell us some very exciting news. The British television network ITV has commissioned film versions of three of Jane Austen’s novels for broadcast: Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Mansfield Park.

The network has secured Andrew Davies, who worked on Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House for the BBC, to adapt gothic romance Northanger Abbey, which will be produced by ITV Production [formally known as Granada]. Clerkenwell Films is developing Persuasion and Mansfield Park will be adapted by Maggie Wadey and produced by Company Pictures.

They also will show the Davies adaptation of EMMA starring Kate Beckinsale.

Before everyone starts jumping up and down with glee, remember that production of other period television dramas have been cancelled at the last minute because they couldn’t get financing. We wonder if ITV, which is apparently uninterested in producing further episodes of the critically acclaimed HORNBLOWER series, which has been immensely popular worldwide–you don’t want to get the Editrix started about that–because “period films are too expensive” will really go through with this.

If one likes adaptations, this is pretty good news, but let’s not get carried away with excitement before actual filming begins.

Also, we’ve read the NA script that Mr. Davies previously wrote and remain unimpressed. We hope it is improved somewhat and our darling Henry Tilney represented more as Jane Austen made him–teasing and funny rather than a milquetoast Sensitive New Age Guy. (A note to Mr. Davies if he happens to read this: Dude, the bathtub scene was just stupid. And that’s coming from probably the biggest Henry Tilney fangirl in the known universe.)

ETA: Another article from the Beeb, which also mentions that the rumored Davies adaptation of Sense and Sensibility is scheduled to be televised in 2007. Thanks to Alert Janeites Heather and Sylvia for the links.

ETA II: The Independent says the new films will start broadcasting in autumn 2006.

P.S. Lots of folks have been sending in news and we swear it will get posted soon–we’ve been extremely busy the past few days. Hang in there!