Since the dawn of the motion picture industry people have been trying to capture the essence of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre on film. In fact, since the first silent film was released in 1915 there has been at least one movie or television adaptation per decade.
Cary Fukunaga’s new project will be the first feature-length Jane of the new millennium.
On the heels of the BBC’s successful Jane Eyre miniseries in 2007, which garnered three Emmy Awards, the company announced plans early in 2008 to produce a Jane Eyre for the big screen. Ruby Films and Focus Features signed on for production as well.
Like the most recent television and film adaptations, this new project will also be a period piece. However, the screenplay, written by Moira Buffini, sets a foundation for the project to capitalize on the more gothic elements of the story.
While Ellen Page had signed on for the title role back in May of 2008, casting and starting dates have shifted. As the film moves through pre-production with a release date set in 2011, we have been given a new Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester.
Mia Wasikowska, a name best associated with Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland, will be playing Jane. Michael Fassenbender, most recognized for his part as the British officer Lieutenant Archie Hicox in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, is set to play Rochester.
Fassenbender is thirteen years older than Wasikowska. He is ruggedly handsome and she is beautifully plain. We know little outside the actors’ faces and the promise of gothic underpinnings; however, I feel this production is already off to being the first to capture that elusive quality of Brontë’s novel that others have missed.
who played the part of young Jane in the 1915 version, and who played the part of young Jane in this 2007 version. I have seen the 1944, 83, and 1996 versions.