I've been following the casting news for the new Jane Austen adaptations that are currently in production for ITV in the UK. Looks like we are going to get them on "Masterpiece Theatre" in the US in 2007.

The one that I'm most excited about is NORTHANGER ABBEY as it has only been filmed once before and suffered from an unfortunate casting choice for the male lead: Peter Firth [that's Peter, not Colin]. NA was Austen's gentle spoof of the gothic novels that were all the rage at the time. The heroine is so caught up in the plots of these novels that she imagines all sorts of evil doings going on around her. Andrew Davies [PRIDE & PREJUDICE (1995), BLEAK HOUSE, DANIEL DERONDA, WIVES & DAUGHERS] is adapting NORTHANGER ABBEY.

Here's a link to the casting news with a small photo of the lead actress:

http://www.iftn.ie/news/index3.htm?fuseact...dy&file_ID=4526

The male lead is JJ Feild [not Field] and although it's true he was born in the US, he grew up in England, so the accent shouldn't be a problem.

PERSUASION has been done three times already and the 1995 version with Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds is quite good, but I'm pleased with the casting of Anne Elliot in the new version. It's Sally Hawkins, who was in LAYER CAKE, VERA DRAKE, FINGERSMITH and TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY. Captain Wentworth has yet to be announced.

The other Austen novel that's never been successfully brought to the screen is MANSFIELD PARK. I hated the Patricia Rozema version from 1999 with Frances O'Connor [an actress I have never liked in anything] and it hasn't been done for tv since 1983 when the Beeb didn't tend to lavish much money on these productions. The new version stars Billie Piper as Fanny Price. An odd choice given the prudishness of the character and the sex kitten tendencies of Piper, but I like her on "Doctor Who" so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. No other characters have been cast as far as I know.

In addition to the three new ITV productions mentioned above, the BBC is doing a new adaptation of SENSE & SENSIBILITY written by Andrew Davies. This one is still a ways off and no casting has been announced.

Oops! Missed this thread. Good thing I'm bored at work and scrolling through the old pages...

An Andrew Davies adaptation of Northanger Abbey is defintiely exciting news. AD = almost guaranteed greatness (except for his Othello, which was a bit of a conceptual misfire... and Tipping the Velvet was ok, but I had the feeling the source material wasn't all there), and a top notch production of this novel (though the Peter Firth version was ok) is definitely needed.

There's definitely room for another Persuasion (although, as you say, the Amanda Root one was pretty good) and Mansfield Park (but I disagree with you on one thing - I really enjoyed Rozema's Mansfield Park, and consider it one of the top Jane Austen adaptations). Another Sense and Sensibility? Less room for that, but at least allowing it to be mini-series length should allow it to accomodate material Emma Thompson had to leave out of her excellent version. And, of course, it's Andrew Davies again. This guy writes 'em faster than I can watch 'em. ...I still haven't had a chance to check out Fallen or The Line of Beauty, and I understand he's also done some British television stuff that hasn't made its way to DVD yet (looking on the IMDB now; it's called The Chatterley Affair).



(P.s. - Sorry for all the parentheticals... that's just how my brain works.)

Davies' track record is more positive than negative [others not mentioned include HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO and THE WAY WE LIVE NOW] but I am a little worried about his NORTHANGER ABBEY since the script he previously wrote for the Weinsteins was considered quite bad by an Austenite friend who read it. I don't know if he's repurposing that script or if he's starting from scratch, nor do I know if the problems with the script were his or imposed on him by the Weinsteins [the Miramax version was dropped after MANSFIELD PARK failed to perform well]. For the record, my friend also hated Rozema's MANSFIELD PARK so she and I share similar opinions on that score. Davies also wrote the gawdawful BOUDICA with Alex Kingston.

Update on casting: Captain Wentworth in PERSUASION is being played by Rupert Penry-Jones from MI-5 [aka SPOOKS]. He was the villain in the recent CASANOVA [starring David Tennant/Peter O'Toole as Casanova]. Anthony Head from BUFFY is playing Sir Walter Elliott, the heroine's shallow, snobby father.

Here's a photo of the two leads from the set:

http://flickr.com/photos/obenson/262979777/

I never heard of Boudica (and maybe now I won't bother tracking it down lol)... Some of my other favorite AD adaptations are his Vanity Fair, Middlemarch, and the House of Cards trilogy... I was worried about that Dr. Zhivago, but when I finally saw it I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't worry too much about the Weinsteins script... Ho

What did you guys dislike about the Rozema Mansfield Park?

I can't speak for Mags, but there were a lot of things I didn't like about Rozema's MP. Firstly, I have issues with Frances O'Connor. She annoys me in every single thing I've seen her in. I hated the asides to the camera. I hated how they turned Fanny Price into a modern heroine, when she very much is not in the novel. She's Austen's most timid and virtuous character, not the sassy character portrayed in the film.

Maybe if the film wasn't called MANSFIELD PARK, I'd be less critical of it, but I still wouldn't like it. Jonny Lee Miller is miscast, though not as much as his TRAINSPOTTING costar Ewan McGregor in EMMA. But Jeremy Northam saves EMMA for me. There's nobody in MANSFIELD PARK to save it, and I usually like Justine Waddell and Alessandro Nivola. It's been some time since I saw the film, but as I remember it, none of the characters are well developed beyond Fanny. And the whole slavery subplot seems wildly out of place to me.

Maybe MANSFIELD PARK is just too big a book to fit into a feature film. I hope the new ITV version is long enough to get it right.

I guess the main distinction for us, then, is the objection to Frances O'Connor. I thought she was pretty good, and didn't find her Fanny Price was sassy. Well... I suppose the bits about her satirical writings would be... but all of those were essentially kept timidly to herself, not thrown in the faces of the other characters.

I don't usually like Johnny Miller, but thought he was good in this (when I later bought that Jane Austen boxed set and rewatched the 80's Mansfield Park, it was fun to discover Miller had an appearance there as well). I thought Embeth Davidtz was quite good, and always wish she would work more.

The slavery bit did stand out to me, too (mainly just because it's clearly not from Austen), but is only really given a few minutes of screen time, primarily at the end, and didn't actually hurt the film for me (it's been a long time since I've read it, but didn't we discover the father had something else objectionable about his career in the novel, which essentially played out the same way as the slavery angle?).

I really enjoyed the asides, actually (though I suppose if I was really annoyed by the actress giving them, that would've ruined it for me, too), and liked how Rozema used some of Austen's non-Mansfield Park writing. Like any of the film (as opposed to mini-series) adaptations, it has to be a bit condensed (the "play bit" in the middle feels a bit rushed); but I actually felt this and Emma Thompson's Sense & Sensibility do the best jobs of compressing Austen's work to film length without botching it. But I agree that the idea of this new MP being fuller is what makes it most compelling. I hope they pull it off, if only for the purist in me. But, if not, at least I'm still happy with my Rozema DVD.

Jeremy Northam was good in Emma... and that version did a few other things right as well, I thought. It's too bad there can't be some kiind of hybrid Emma, that takes the best elements of the Paltrow and Beckinsale versions, and leaves out the flaws.

After this, though, as much as I love her writings, I think it'll be time to put the Austen adaptations aside until some secret, lost novel is miraculously discovered... I'd really like to see the BBC/ ITV/ A&E/ PBS gang take on some Virginia Woolf projects, maybe some more Anthony Trollope... a good Oscar Wilde or Evelyn Waugh would be great. But no more Pride & Prejudices for at least a decade!

PRIDE & PREJUDICE has definitely been over exploited. How many adaptations now? If you count Gurinder Chadha's BRIDE & PREJUDICE but leave out the multitude of foreign language adaptations, I count 11 on IMDb. But NORTHANGER ABBEY has only been done once. And there are the unfinished novels -- SANDITON and THE WATSONS. You would think someone would attempt an adaptation of those before the umpteenth P&P adaptation.

But this is the same thing that happens with any classic novelist. The filmmakers fail to look beyond their greatest hits. I've always wanted to see more H. Rider Haggard adapted than KING SOLOMON'S MINES [and the occasional SHE]. I'd love to see an adaptation of the relatively obscure THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST.

In a more Austen-like vein, there have only been a couple of Elizabeth Gaskell adaptations. Definitely room for more there.