'Jane Eyre never fails to be hard, bracing and new'

News from the Brontë front, today.

The first press releases and articles about the upcoming PBS broadcasting of Jane Eyre appear:

Now PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" has a two-parter.
Here is a popular British heroine. She's "Jane, plain Jane, nothing but trouble," says Rebecca Eaton, the "Masterpiece Theatre" chief.

Jane lacks status, family, money and height. "She is the underdog," says Ruth Wilson, who plays her. "Brits love underdogs." Wilson, 25, was also an underdog, virtually unknown when she landed the role.

That required some self-deprecation. In the book, Jane describes herself as "poor, plain and little."

There's something universal there, Eaton says. "Every girl knows that feeling of being not the prettiest girl in class, not the liveliest person in the room."
That's easy to get to, Wilson says. "Wearing no make-up and a horrible hairdo, you feel like her."

But that's just part of Jane Eyre. She's alternately shy and outspoken, subservient
and spirited, plain and radiant.

"Like every person, she's full of contradictions," Wilson says. "What's interesting is her journey." (...)

(...) Edward Rochester. Bronte uses such words as "dark," "stern," "heavy brow" and "ireful and thwarted"; filmmakers prefer cute. So this time the role went to Toby Stephens, a leading-man-type on British TV.

"He's very good-looking ... which really makes my job incredibly easy," Wilson
says.

The film linked an unknown Jane with a well-known (in England) Rochester and some past "Masterpiece" stars. Tara Fitzgerald plays Jane's cruel aunt; Francesca Annis plays Lady Ingram, determined to be Rochester's mother-in-law.

There have been at least 17 other "Jane Eyre" films, but this was one of the first to be completely in the hands of women. That included the director, the screenwriter and the three executive producers.

Hmph... poor Diederick Santer.

And virtually all of this was filmed in actual locations, not on sets.

"You forget how beautiful Britain is," says Wilson, who lives in London and grew up in its suburbs. The filming took her to Bronte turf, with sprawling landscapes, tiny cottages, an old school and a grand mansion. (Mike Hughes in The Shreveport Times)

Romancing the Tome also talks about this new Jane Eyre and describes Ruth Wilson as a a poor man's Liv Tyler. We are pretty sure that after you see her performance as Jane probably Liv Tyler will be a poor man's Ruth Wilson :P.

Finally, two new writers and Brontëites, courtesy of Bildungsroman. Garret Freymann-Weyr, author of Stay with Me, is interviewed by Slayground:

Would you care to share your list of ten favorite books?Well, this is a kind of fluid answer. As in these are the ten I think of right now. (...)
Jane Eyre (never fails to be hard, bracing and new)

Lauren Baratz-Logsted, the author of Angel's Choice or How Nancy Drew Saved My Life, is the other writer interviewed:

What are your ten favorite books of all time?
This could change tomorrow, but since you're asking me today: (...) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte.

This is not at all surprising because she is a reader of this blog.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV