Fellow Austenites, rejoice!
Every so often, an event comes along that sends me into paroxysms of geeky glee, into fangirly ecstasy!
Tonight, the cause of my fangasm is the promise of a bunch of new adaptations, all set for release in 2007, of Jane Austen classics! The first is a series of three two-hour films, each based on a Jane Austen book, all set to air on ITV1 in Britain in the next few weeks. The books are Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Admittedly, I haven't read the last two, but they're on my Mental To-Read List -- especially Persuasion, which I think I'll really luuuuurve. Plus, the guy playing the romantic lead in it looks totally hot. The films don't air in the U.S. (and, I'm guessing, Canada) until November (ARGH!) when they'll hit PBS, but WHATEVER, I'm just happy that I'll get to see them, someday...maybe...in the near(ish)--or far(ish)--future. Anyway, they're calling this set of films The Jane Austen Season. Check it out, it looks sexy, which Jane Austen kind of isn't, but hey, creative licence. And eloquent British men in Regency era dress. Who am I to complain? Also, I quite liked Mansfield Park (the book) in its repressive, moralize-y kind of way, and the 1999 movie didn't really satisfy my craving for seeing it onscreen -- it was too eroticized, and the Fanny Price in the movie was nothing like the Fanny Price in the book. And they called it a "wicked comedy", for chrissakes. That I'm sure Jane Austen didn't intend.
What a coincidence that I'd find this out after bingeing this weekend on Pride and Prejudice -- the book and the miniseries (which continues to be the freakin' best onscreen Austen adaptation -- well-acted and detailed and faithful to the novel and just...awesomeness personified). I just couldn't get enough of the visual orgasm of Colin Firth/Mr. Darcy on my computer screen. That man is a tall hunky drink of water.
And apparently the BBC will continue in its fine tradition of Austen novel-based miniseries, because they're doing Sense and Sensibility, which is supposed to come out some time this year. Yay! If it's half as good as Pride and Prejudice was, I will die happy, clutching the DVD to my heart. Yay! Colonel Brandon! But I anticipate it with some trepidation, because part of my love for Colonel Brandon comes from Alan Rickman's awesome portrayal in the 1995 movie, complete with velvety smooth voice. I doubt it can be topped.
And (you thought I was done, didn't you, but not quite yet) there's going to be a movie about Jane Austen herself - to be released later this year. It looks (typically) sensationalized. Maggie Smith is in it, though, so it can't be all bad. Unluckily, Austen be played by the lovely but wooden Anne Hathaway. I could imagine very few actresses who are more wrong for the part. Hathaway is nice to look at, I'll give her that--but it works agains her here, because I never pictured Austen as particularly pretty. Also, the poor girl always looks so vacant, she couldn't possibly portray someone with wit or a superior understanding of people's social interactions with any sort of believability. The man playing her love interest looks kind of hot in the trailer, though. Real life, not as much.