Hatching time

Deborah Yaffe
Jul 24
2 min read

Like periodical cicadas, Austen adaptations come around on a predictable schedule. Every ten or fifteen years, a newly hatched crew of ambitious producers, directors, and screenwriters decides that an Austen novel last adapted a decade or so earlier is ripe for a reboot. Frequently, there is talk of how each generation wants/needs/deserves its own take on this beloved/important/startlingly contemporary! story.

In 2020, we got an Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn, stylish) that succeeded versions from 1995 (Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong, controversial), 1996 (Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam, dull), and 2009 (Romola Garai and Johnny Lee Miller, worthy).

In 2022, Netflix brought us a new Persuasion (Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis, ill-advised), which followed adaptations from 1995 (Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, lovely) and 2007 (Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, problematic).

Earlier this year, it was the turn of Pride and Prejudice, as Netflix announced plans for a new adaptation starring Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden. That version will follow P&Ps from 1980 (Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul, mixed), 1995 (Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, definitive), and 2005 (Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, love-it-or-hate-it).

And last month we learned that Sense and Sensibility’s number has come up: Focus Features and Working Title Films, which brought us both the 2020 Emma and the 1995 P&P, announced plans for a new feature-film version of S&S, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood. Which perfectly fits the cicada-hatching schedule, since the new adaptation will follow versions released in 1995 (Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, sublime) and 2008 (Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield, strong).

The latest S&S will be written by Australian novelist Diana Reid and directed by the young British filmmaker Georgia Oakley. (For those of you keeping feminist score at home, I believe that makes it the fourth Austen adaptation—after the 1999 Mansfield Park, the 2020 Emma and the 2022 Persuasion--to be both written and directed by women.) And if we can trust Reid’s Instagram—on which she announced, as of June 25, that the movie is "shooting next month”--then the project is well on its way.

All this Austen activity clearly begs just one question: Mansfield Park, anyone? Its latest iterations include the aforementioned 1999 version (Frances O’Connor and Johnny Lee Miller, very controversial) and the 2007 (Billie Piper and Blake Ritson, I-can’t-even). The hatching ought to be imminent. A new generation awaits.

4 Comments

Tram Chamberlain

Jul 24

what about the dearth of northanger abbey remakes? or maybe andrew davies' 2007 adaptation left nothing for anyone else to add?

Deborah Yaffe

Replying to

Definitely true that NA is ripe for another one, although I--being less of an NA fan--don't feel its lack quite as much.

amsprayberry

The main trouble with adapting MP is that the world in general thinks Fanny Price is a drip who needs someone to call in a plumber. The 1999 film did this by making Fanny a mashup of herself and the young JA (with mixed success at best), and the 2007 adaptation did this by making Fanny all yippie-skippie and bouncing curls (let us draw the curtain of charity).

You haven't mentioned the 1983 BBC series of MP--which, like most of its kindred, was literal, plodding, and usually dull, but which did have its moments. I think that Sylvestra Le Touzel made at least a game effort with Fanny, and Anna Massey as Mrs. Norris and Bernard Hepton as Sir Thomas…

I still think that a less plodding but still true to the book MP could be done, and given all the renewed interest in the slavery context, it wouldn't surprise me if someone gives it a try. I wish Andrew Davies had attempted that one (maybe he still will!)