Have you ever felt “poor, obscure, plain, and little”?

PopSugar reports that Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender are both featured (on the cover too) in the April issue of W magazine. Apart from unveiling the cover, PopSugar also has images of the actual contents and fragments from the interview:

•Michael on playing Mr. Rochester: "I’m probably 10 years too young for Rochester, so I went for a Byronic sort of hero. I didn’t read Jane Eyre in school, but my mother and sister were always talking about it, and that was a big reason why I did it. I didn’t have a preconceived idea of Rochester — I just saw him as encapsulating so many interesting elements: a shady past, intelligent, self-destructive, destructive, passionate. And he has a terrible secret. I’m curious to see what my mother and sister think of my Rochester." (Allie Merriam)

The New York Post's PopWrap also shares pictures of this photoshoot as well as videos of Michael and Mia's screen tests.

The Los Angeles Times Awards Tracker wonders whether the new Jane Eyre is doomed at the Oscars.

"Jane Eyre" starring Mia Wasikowska looks like a real winner, scoring 78 at Metacritic and earning $45,579 per screen in four movie theaters last weekend. But what about how it may be received (or not) at the next Academy Awards? Beware: The many past film adaptations were as doomed at the Oscars as the characters in Charlotte Brontë's gothic heart-breaker.
But, first, let's focus on the good news: critics' love for the latest screen rendition. [...]
There have been 18 feature film adaptations of "Jane Eyre." None was nominated for Oscars, including notable versions starring Joan Fontaine (1944), Zelah Clarke (1983) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (1996) in the title role. There have been nine TV adaptations, none of which earned Emmy nominations for best TV movie or miniseries or best drama program, not even the beloved 1972 version starring George C. Scott and Susannah York, who both earned bids for their performances, but lost. The most recent TV rendition received six Emmy noms in 2007, but almost all in tech categories. Star Ruth Wilson reaped hosanna reviews from TV critics, but she was snubbed by TV academy voters. (Tom O'Neil)

Gather Entertainment thinks that,

One thing’s for sure, regardless of the quality of the forthcoming film, it may serve to inspire readers to pick up Jane Eyre. Whether you’ve read the novel just once or fifty times, you’ll root for Brontë’s heroine as she overcomes her terrible childhood and other obstacles and becomes an independent young woman. (Amy Outland)

Maybe The Corsair reviewer should pick up the book as the negative points listed seem to lie more with her understanding of the film than with the film itself, beginning with the fact that she calls it both an '18th century classic' and a novel 'set in Victorian England'.

This version is not a blockbuster Hollywood love story as some adaptations have been in the past, such as Emma and Pride and Prejudice, but rather shows a darker side of the classic. Director Cary Fukunaga, from Sin Nombre fame, is an interesting choice to tackle this 18th century masterpiece. Fukunaga succeeds with this film and shows how he can be a versatile director of different styles.
Filmed in Derbyshire, England, the film moves quietly and slowly, sometimes even at a snail's pace that is used to build up suspense, which makes the film boring at times. [...]
The film uses flashbacks to show Jane's full life, however the focus lies more on the love story between Jane and Rochester rather than her life growing up which is really essential to understand her character. The plot becomes confusing throughout the film because it is uncertain whether or not Jane is interested in Mr. Rochester. The stagnant performances are unsure but seem to fit with the repression of feelings and passion known to Victorian England.
The film accurately captures the darkness, dreariness, and loneliness that the heroine faces pushing the audience into feeling for her.
Jane Eyre seems more fitting for a Masterpiece Theater crowd than patrons looking for a fun night out on the weekend. Fans of period pieces will enjoy the scenery and costumes while a general movie going audience might want to pass for something more upbeat and fun. (Joan Walsh)

Box office results, however, would seem to disagree with some of the statements.

Taki's Magazine reaches the conclusion that,

What we are left with seems rather like Jane Eyre if Jane Austen had written it. (Steve Sailer)

Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life thinks that 2011 is going to be a Brontë year:

Last weekend, Jane Eyre‘s umpteenth film adaptation opened to strong reviews and squeals from bookish girls (and boys) who, at some point in their lives, may have felt “poor, obscure, plain, and little.” With Wuthering Heights being released later this year, it seems that the Brontë sisters are having a moment. (Stephan Lee)

A few reviewers might do well to take a leaf out of WTAQ's book:

First off, when you're lobbying to see Jane Eyre at the theater this weekend or you're arguing for putting Little Women next on the Netflix queue, you want to avoid words like ""touching,"" ""heart-warming,"" ""tear-jerking,"" ""thought-provoking,"" ""classic,"" ""feminism,"" and ""literary."" Basically, avoid anything that refers to the fact that the movie once came from a book that may have been required reading in your A.P. English class. That is wrong. That is the element producing your friends' groans of distaste. Instead, try our helpful, sexed-up descriptions of the canonical books turned super-awesome-fun-time movies to trick them. (Don't worry, this won't have any adverse effects.)
Jane Eyre
Jane's tough as nails. She's been tortured her whole life. She's been told she's no good. She's lost anything she's ever loved. But when she breaks out on her own, she finds a man who's just as un-tamable as she is. Rochester's smoldering magnetism is irresistible, but he's hiding a dark and terrible secret SO unforgivable, SO terrifying, that it may just rip them apart forever.

College Candy wants the release of the new Jane Eyre to 'resurrect some of the narratives we thought used to bore us to death'.

The Grimsby Telegraph writes about Margaret Dickinson's latest novel, Forgive And Forget.

POPULAR Lincolnshire author Margaret Dickinson's novels are full of strong women.
These feisty, resourceful females are central to saga fiction and Forgive And Forget is no exception.[...]
Inspired by seminal writers such as Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, Margaret's latest heroine, Polly Longden, possesses all the fiery ambition of Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre.

Another book with Brontë echoes seems to be Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, reviewed by The List:

Moreover, it’s suffused with cultural allusions that span the breadth of film and literary history, from Jane Eyre to David Fincher’s Se7en. (Yasmin Sulaiman)

ArrowLakeNews reports a local event:

It was an eventful night Friday evening, with two events going on at both the Nakusp Public Library and the arena, and both could not have been more different.
While folks were over playing hockey to raise money for the next grad class, many of Nakusp and New Denver’s poets, writers and avid readers chose to pack into the quaint building to listen and read poetry. [...]
A full list of readers and their poems are as follows: [...]
Ramona England – Rochester’s Song to Jane Eyre; (Sam Smith)

And now an alert for later today at the Hillside Public Library, New Hyde Park, NY:

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
PAGETURNERS: Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler
A beautifully imagined tale of the Brontë sisters, Becoming Jane Eyre delicately unravels the connections between one of fiction’s most indelible heroines and the remarkable woman who created her.

Associated Content has a couple of essays more today: Favorite Film Version of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights: The Other Brontë Film. Her Book Self, Library Queue, Required Readings and Mammadamen (in Norwegian) all post about Jane Eyre, the novel. Cinephilia and Sass takes a look at Rochester through differente adaptations.

Categories: Alert, Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV