From filming Daphne to Brontës in the Atlantic

More film projects. Booktrade informs of another Brontë-related one: Justine Picardie's upcoming book Daphne.

Bloomsbury Publishing is delighted to announce a film deal for Justine Picardie's forthcoming novel, Daphne, to be published in March 2008.
The option has been bought by Robert Fox, producer of the films - Iris, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal and executive producer of Closer and most recently the Golden Globe winning, Oscar nominated Atonement. Daphne will be his next project.
Fox's family had ties with the Du Mauriers and as a child Robert himself visited Daphne at Menabilly, Fowey, the house that would go on to inspire so much of her writing. Justine Picardie is thrilled to have a producer so in tune with this book and its history.
The deal was done through Gráinne Fox at Ed Victor Limited, Picardie's Literary Agents, with film co-agent Geoffrey Sanford at RWSH in LA.
Daphne is published on March 3rd 2008, priced £14.99

The Huddersfield Examiner reproduces today the Film Squared press release concerning the Brontë biopic's status that we have already posted several times:

A HOLMFIRTH film maker is shooting a £5m movie about the Bronte sisters that could become a global hit thanks to film star Mel Gibson.
Nick Wild and his Film Squared production company are due to start filming Bronte in May.
But funding cuts means they are £350,000 short and are now offering local companies and investors a slice of the action.
Bronte is being backed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment production company at the Berlin Film Festival next month. (Joanne Douglas)

The Independent talks with Helen Dunmore, a favourite of BrontëBlog, and a Brontë reference slips in:

There is a long tradition for the heroes of children's books to be orphans, of course. But, I wonder, does the modern step-family open up new relationships for writers to explore? Not necessarily, says Dunmore. "I think cases such as Anna's, in which she accidentally becomes a parent [when her mother dies in childbirth] are historically quite accurate. There were lots of occasions when people were not brought up by their two biological parents. Maybe the family has no money, so the child is brought up elsewhere. Even in Jane Austen's family the children were essentially given away [in Jane's case to a wet nurse]. Charlotte Brontë's mother died and the aunt moved in to look after them... I think my stories are reflecting a historical reality." (Katy Guest)

The Lindsay Post gives some reasons to visit Yorkshire, one of them, of course, the Brontë legacy:

Lovers of literature will be tempted to follow the footsteps of their favourite authors and poets. This windswept land of heather and wild moors was the inspiration for the classic works of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. You can tour the Parsonage, home to the Bronte family, and see the sofa upon which Emily died; Charlotte's work-basket just as she left it; and the books, barely an inch square, that the children wrote in secret. (Julia Bryan)

The Washington Post reviews Over Her Dead Body and quotes Wuthering Heights as a possible antecedent:

Is there love after death? Around Hollywood, that's like asking if there's valet parking at Mr. Chow's. Even a cursory survey of the available research material -- "Topper," "Blithe Spirit," "Wuthering Heights," "Ghost," "Heaven Can Wait," "Close to Heaven," the recent "P.S. I Love You" -- nullifies the notion that mere mortality might ever get in the way of romance. After all, it's not as if life comes with end credits. (John Anderson)

On the blogosphere: normblog interviews blogger Anna Waits:

What is the best novel you've ever read? > Charlotte Brontë's Villette. I did declare it 'the dullest book I've ever read' after a couple of pages, but quickly changed my tune.

And this is a very special blog: Extreme Rowing is the blog of the Catherine Allaway and Margaret Bowling, both participants in the Atlantic Rowing Race 2007. From some place in the Atlantic Ocean:

The conditions are reasonably calm so I spent a very pleasant few hours this afternoon sitting out on deck reading my all time favorite tale of moody melancholy romance, Wuthering Heights, as well as doing some laundry (well timed after the super rinsing it just got) and munching my way through some more chocolate salvaged from the grab bag which, after almost 2 months in the heat, now resembles rock dust. (Cath Allaway)

Brontëites are truly everywhere.

Categories: Brontëites, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights