Say yes at North Lees Hall but check the attic later on

Jamie Bell is still doing the promotional rounds and being asked about forthcoming projects such as Jane Eyre. On USA Today:

In Jane Eyre, opening in March, Bell takes on the role of St. John Rivers, Jane's clergyman cousin. The Charlotte Brontë story has been filmed several dozen times, but Bell says, "Ours is a much darker take on the story. One of the producers told me, 'I've never seen St. John as Robert Mitchum before.'" (Nancy Mills)

On Movieline:

You seem to go from project to project based on your connection with directors. Next you’re working with Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) on Jane Eyre and Asgar Leth (Ghosts of Cite Soleil) on Man on a Ledge. How do those things come about? Do you gravitate towards certain directors after seeing their work?
Yeah, I mean Sin Nombre is a no brainer. As a first feature it’s an amazing achievement. Also, someone doing that and then going on to Jane Eyre is like, what? That’s kind of bizarre, and I want to be a part of that. [...] (Jen Yamato)

The Westport News shares further details on the Jane Eyre screening and Q&A with Cary Fukunaga on March 10:

An advance screening, sponsored by the Westport Youth Film Festival, of Focus Features' new version of "Jane Eyre" will be shown March 10, at the Bow Tie Royale 6 Theater, 542 Westport Ave., Norwalk, at 7:30 p.m.; seating is at 7 p.m.
The WYFF is a program of the Westport Arts Center. A question-and-answer session with director Cary Fukunaga will follow the screening. The screening is a fundraiser in preparation for this year's festival, May 13 to 14 in Fairfield.
Set in 19th-century England, the movie chronicles the story of orphan Jane Eyre, who has an unhappy childhood -- first living with her malicious aunt and cousins, and then as a student at the austere boarding school, Lowood. Later, as a young woman, Jane leaves the school to become a governess at the country estate Thornfield, where she falls in love with her cynical employe. The movie stars Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Judi Dench.
Tickets, $25 per person, are limited and can be purchased by visiting www.westportartscenter.org or calling 203-222-7070.

According to the Westport Arts Center there are only 240 tickets for sale, so hurry up and get one if you're nearby!

And let's not forget that Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights should be out later this year as well. The Guardian has an article on 'street-casting':

Street casting isn't limited to brassy young teens with grit in their nails and a "whatever" attitude. [Des] Hamilton has just cast Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. "It was the first time I ever did it outside the genre of edgy, working-class drama," Hamilton says. (Simon Jablonski)

And of course, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so a few Brontë mentions are almost compulsory. The CNN has picked the '10 sweetest places for a Valentine's Day proposal' from around the world. Number one is...

1. England's North Lees Hall
Fans of "Jane Eyre" will recall that the melancholic Mr. Rochester met and fell in love with Jane Eyre at Thornfield Hall, an isolated Gothic manor deep in the English countryside.
Trouble is Thornfield Hall doesn't actually exist.
Charlotte Brontë is said to have based the description of her fantasy lovenest on Derbyshire's North Lees Hall.
These days, North Lees Hall has been restored to its full Elizabethan glory. Its stucco-ceiling rooms are rented out to visitors.
With the rolling English countryside in the background, and log-burning stoves roaring indoors, it's the perfect setting for your own epic romance.
North Lees Hall is located in the Peak District National Park, where you can go hang-gliding, horseback riding, caving and climbing once you've tired of indoor activity.
What you need to know: Two nights at North Lees Hall costs start at £448.80, or US$724, per person. Prices vary according to dates. Make bookings with North Less Hall's booking agency. (Tiffany Lam)

The Economist reviews the book Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad 1695 - 2010 by Fran Beauman just in time for V-Day:

Humour in the ads is a recent innovation, but parodies of them are plentiful. The young Charlotte Brontë wrote a short story called “Henry Hastings” which poked fun at the young advertiser “desirous of getting his bread easy”, who seeks simply “possession of that one great and paramount virtue—that eminent and irresistible charm—C-A-S-H!”

According to The Batavian,

"Love Lines," an original Batavia Players' production written and directed by Patrick Burk, will honor St. Valentine through a series of monologues about romantic correspondence before cell phones. [...]
Although all of the monologues are about love, not all of them center around traditional infatuation. The objects of affection featured will range from Jane Austen to the aforementioned Reagans to the novel Wuthering Heights. [...]
Performances are February 11th and 12th at 7:30 pm at the Harvester 56 Theater on Harvester Avenue [Illinois]. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors, and can be purchased at the door or at www.showtix4u.com (Gretel Kauffman)

The Times of India discusses love stories and 'cult couples' from literature:

When it comes to cult couples from literature, why do we only have dated references of love? Is contemporary literature less obsessed with love or do romantic icons now only exist in oblivion? What's common between Romeo and Juliet, Jim and Della, Don Quixote and Dulcinea, Heer and Ranjha, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy, Paris and Helena and Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza? All these characters have come alive on the pages of celebrated literary works only to become cult references of iconic love. (Priyanka Dasgupta)

The Toronto Star asks several writers about their romantic fiction favourites. Joy Fielding doesn't want to go for the 'obvious' (see above):

After eliminating the more obvious choices — Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, Love Story, Dr. Zhivago — I decided on The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. (Vit Wagner)

Indeed, not everyone is as thrilled about Emily Brontë as these students mentioned by the Guardian's Mortarboard Blog:

My old school! I taught there for 35 years. Loved most of it, especially the sixth form.
You can't beat an inner-city, state school, sixth form – sussed, curious, hungry and bright as pins. Ah, the dappled light on shades of academe as we thrilled to John Donne or Emily Brontë or the Clash. Richly various. All god's children. A golden age… (Fielding)

For instance, the Utah Standard-Examiner reports that composer and playwright Jill Santoriello was unable to complete a musical based on Wuthering Heights (a story that reappears from time to time):

She turned to the Dickens classic after giving up on a draft of a musical based on "Wuthering Heights." She decided she wasn't passionate about that idea because the story's ending was too dark.
"My brother pointed out to me that at the end of 'Wuthering Heights,' everybody is dead and no one is happy," Santoriello said. "There is just nothing redemptive about that story." (J. Michael Call)

In our opinion, Cathy and Hareton's ending was quite redemptive and, if not traditionally happy, at least going in the right direction towards that.

The Berkshire Eagle discusses The Mystery of Irma Vep and lists its many literary influences, Brontë too. And The London Evening Standard reviews Faulks on Fiction, whose contents also include (sometimes controversially) some Brontë stufff.

Les Soeurs Brontë tells - in French - about her fascination for the Brontës. Iris on Books reviews Agnes Grey. La rosa nera discusses Emily Brontë in Italian and Tales of a Madcap Heiress has been to see Sam Taylor-Woods's Ghosts at the Brooklyn Museum. Unputdownables posts about the first week of the Villette read-along as does Books and Chocolate. Jane Eyre is discussed by Looking Glass Reviews, Crystal Clear As Mud and Un tè con Jane Austen (in Italian, with special attention to the 1943 adaptation). Finally, Simply Sewn is busy sewing the Lowood costumes for a local performance of Jane Eyre. The Musical.

Categories: Books, Brontëana, Jane Eyre, Juvenilia, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights