London Times: Jane Eyre and the Brontes Rule

The first reports (and first photo) of Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre are starting to pop up. In the TimesOnline, Ben Hoyle’s “Brooding Brontës replace Austen as ‘bonnet drama’ returns” looks at how Charlotte and Emily Brontë have become all the vogue in film circles. In addition to Fukunaga's Jane Eyre (which will have the meteoric new star Mia Wasikowska as the title heroine), British director Andrea Arnold is working on a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. As Hoyle notes, both new films are being directed by filmmakers better known for their tough storytelling then their fancy flourishes. For Jane Eyre’s producer Alison Owen, this is a good thing and Cary is the perfect person to do it: “He is someone who is outside the culture, so he can shake it up, [meaning] we don’t get the chocolate-box version that everyone is familiar with.” As for the bigger question of why are the Brontë so boss today, Owen speculates:

There is something about the current situation that the world finds itself in where the Brontës more suit the mood of the moment [than Austen]. Jane Austen is a lighter cut than the Brontës, who are much more brooding and bleak.