2012 in Brontëland

A few years ago, the happy 2000's, each new year was received with a mixture of excitement and genuine expectation. We were excited by the wonders the year could bring and expected the best. Now 2012 is not received hoping things get better but wishing that things don't get worse. Who or what has turned us into such fearsome and grim people could be the subject of another post on another kind of blog. Right here we will try to summarise what the year is keeping for the Brontëite.

Everything seems to point out that this will be a quieter Brontë year than 2011. The thrill of the premieres of Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights has passed but there are still interesting things to look forward to. Maybe we will see Academy Awards nominations for Jane Eyre 2011. Rumour has it that Michael O'Connor (costume design) and Dario Marianelli (soundtrack) are the most likely candidates. But we still cross our fingers that Mia Wasikowska enters the final selection. The film has yet to be premiered in some countries, France for instance. And the UK DVD edition will be released in March. The year will begin with the US premiere (in Sundance) of Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. We suppose the film will open in the US in the first semester of 2012 but, taking into account the independent and particular nature of the film, we don't expect a similar thrill to Cary Fukunaga's film. The film will be released on DVD in the UK next March and we hope to see some BAFTA nominations, probably best cinematography (Robbie Ryan). In an altogether different league, January will see the TV premiere of the Philippine television drama Walang Hanggan, loosely based on the 1991  film Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit which was based on Wuthering Heights. EDIT: It seems that Acorn Media is releasing The Brontës of Haworth in DVD in the UK this February.

Brontë fiction this year seems to change its center from the Brontës' lives to their fiction. Jane Eyre is the preferred subject. We find echoes of Jasper Fforde in Eve Marie Mont's A Breath of Eyre (April); a steampunk retelling (with fairies) in Ironskin (Fall);  Jane Eyre as an amateur sleuth in a new series by Joanna Campbell Slan: The Jane Eyre Chronicles: Death of a Schoolgirl (July). Heathcliff and Catherine will return as ghosts in the Italian sequel Io Sonno Heathcliff by Desy Giuffré. We don't know if Jolien Janzing's Brussels Brontë novel or April Lindner's new YA novel based on Wuthering Heights, Catherine, will be published this year or in 2013. The most original release is a young children adaptation of Jane Eyre: Little Miss Brontë by Jennifer Adams (illustrated by Alison Oliver) (April).

Not too many Brontë non-fiction books are scheduled for this year: Law and the Brontës by Ian Ward has been brought forward and is already published in the UK; Walking with the Brontës by Norman and June Buckley; Juliet Barker's essential  The Brontës will be republished with a new subtitle: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of Three Sisters (August). EDIT (Thanks to Moira for providing further information): Patsy Stoneman's Charlotte Brontë, scheduled for October, is a new installment in the Northcote Writers & Their Works series.

In the theatre world, the Artemis Theater adaptation of Wuthering Heights (by Jeroen Olyslaegers) will tour again the Netherlands with a stop in New York; Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment, a song cycle by Diana Prechter and Kent Cole will be performed at the Austin FronteraFest Short Fringe Festival; Das Leben der Schwestern Brontë by Daniela Dett and Nora Dirisamer is a new Austrian play wich will be premiered in Linz (Austria); April de Angelis's Wuthering Heights will be performed in Exeter; Polly Teale's Jane Eyre is scheduled in May in Birmingham; Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre musical will had productions in Tyrone (GA), Kirkland (WA), Round Lake (IL), Rocky Hill (CT)...  The big surprise here is the European premiere of the opera Wuthering Heights by Carlisle Floyd. It's a production of the Mittelsächsisches Theater and will open in Freiburg next February.

As for exhibitions, we are sure that some will come to our attention throughout the year. As of now, and after the closed period, the exhibition on Patrick Brontë at the Brontë Parsonage Museum lasts until March. And after that a new temporary exhibition will probably open, perhaps connected to the 'detective' work carried out a few months ago in order to find out more on the actual inside decoration of the parsonage when the Brontës lived there.

Here's wishing a very happy new years to all BrontëBlog readers.