2011 in Brontëland

 2011 in Brontëland will be, with absolute security, a year marked by the premiere of two new film adaptations of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. We first knew about the former in 2008 when it was reported that BBC Films and Ruby Films were developing a Jane Eyre project with a script by Moira Buffini. Jane Eyre in those days was Ellen Page and it was the subject of a warm debate whether she was a good choice or not. Eventually she left the project and Mia Wasikowska took on the role of Jane, Michael Fassbender was the chosen Rochester and Cary Fukunaga was appointed director. The rest of the cast was revealed little by little:  Jamie Bell, Imogen Poots, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins, Sophie Ward, Tamzin Merchant...

The first time we heard about the new Wuthering Heights was back in 2006 when we published that a script by Olivia Hetreed was one of the Ecosse Films projects in development. Its evolution was certainly more hazardous than the Jane Eyre one. Several directors were appointed (John Maybury, Peter Webber) and actors were on and off  (Natalie Portman, Abbie Cornish, Gemma Arterton, Michael Fassbender, Ed Westwick... ) until finally the project ended in the hands of Andrea Arnold who has chosen a cast of young and relatively unknown actors: Kaya Scodelario, James Howson for her adaptation.

Both productions share directors that come from the independent scene. Cary Fukunaga joins Jane Eyre after having won in Sundance for Sin Nombre and Andrea Arnold faces in Wuthering Heights the difficult task of maintaining her idiosyncratic style full of angst-ridden teenagers mixed with a very careful artistic direction (Fish Tank, Red Road)  in a period film (which in a way is also full of angst-ridden teenagers). We wonder what will happen with Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre. Will it show personality (as the trailer seems to indicate, with a very intelligent use of the Gothic and dark imaginery of the original novel) or will it be another show of a Sundance director engulfed by the industry? The release dates vary according to the countries.


The other big event of the Brontë year will be, no doubt, the first staging of the complete Wuthering Heights opera by Bernard Herrmann (there was a 1982 abridged staging in Portland and last year the Festival de Montpellier presented a concert version) at the Minnesota Opera in April. Kelly Kaduce (who was also Jane Eyre in the St Louis production of Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre) and Lee Poulis will take on the main roles. The musical director is Michael Christie.


In July we will see a new musical adaptation of Wuthering Heights (嵐が丘) in Tokyo and Osaka written by playwright Sanae Iijima, composed by Kuramoto Motohiro and directed by Nobuhiro Nishikawa with Ryuichi Kawamura, Aya Hirano and Natsumi Abe.

Lucy Gough has adapted for the stage her 2003 Radio 4 dramatization of Wuthering Heights and the piece will tour Wales next March as an Aberystwyth Arts Centre production.

As far as we know, 2011 will not be such a fruitful year in Brontë fiction or scholarship as previous years. There are retellings of the classical Brontë novels scheduled for release. An erotic Wuthering Heights: Wuthering Heights: The Wild and Wanton Edition by Annabella Bloom; YA books with Brontë elements: Kay Woodward (author of the nice Jane Airhead) Wuthering Hearts and the projected Wuthering Heights revision by April Lindner (author of the successful Jane); Women's Fiction (in her own definition) with Beth Pattillo's The Truth about Jane Eyre... The Classical Comics adaptation of Wuthering Heights (signed by Sean M. Wilson and John M. Burns, the latter also illustrated Jane Eyre some years ago) will be published in March and we will perhaps - fingers crossed - see the Hesperus Classics editions of Brief Lives: Charlotte Brontë by Jessica Cox and Charlotte's Tales of Islanders. Scholar literature has only two confirmed titles: Sally Shuttleworth & Patricia Ingham's Charlotte Brontë (Artists and their Works) and Women's Search for Independence in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Social Issues in Literature), edited by Claudia Durst Johnson (see our sidebar for more books with no confirmed release dates).

And the Brontë Parsonage Museum will reopen after its annual closed period (from January 4 to January 31, 2011) with the exhibition Sex, Drugs and Literature - The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë (which can be visited until May 20). It should be highlighted that The Bronte Society 2011 Conference will take place in August at Homerton College, Cambridge, around the topic The Brontës and the Bible: Influences Both Literary And Religious. The Brussels Brontë Group will organise their annual April Weekend with the presence of speakers such as Valerie Sanders and Philip Riley. 2011 will also mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Patrick Brontë, we wonder if it will be commemorated somehow.

And of course there will be performances all around the world of Polly Teale's pieces about the Brontës (Shared Experience will tour again the UK in Spring 2011 with Brontë), Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre musical  (in Hull, etc...), the Artemis Theater (Netherlands) will produce a revival of their production of Wuthering Heights maybe around December... And all the many unexpected and amazing things that we are sure will crop up in the coming months. A very happy, very Brontëish 2011!!

Categories: Messages from BB