From UPI.com, information about a new and interesting novel-allusion to Emma and an old, short piece about Romola Garai in Emma4.
Mona May costumes another Emma-inspired film?
Times of India reports that Mona May, Clueless costume designer, is doing Sonam Kapoor’s wardrobe for Ayesha.
“Monetizing Emma”
Last night, Google yielded information about another play loosely based on Emma. This one deals with the alarmingly dystopic concept of investing not in conventional securities, but in…teenagers?
Anyway, the eponymous heroine is apparently a huge Austen fan:
“Emma Dorfman’s one of the chosen elite. A shy 15-year-old who most days shuttles between bullies at school, a pushy mom and a fantasy life inspired by Jane Austen, she’s not exactly sure she wants to be “monetized.†But Thackeray Walsh has special plans for her and Emma may be forced to trade her split reality for something doubly scary…and far more adult.”
Performances begin June 17.
Emma in Iowa…
A bit late on the uptake, but I recently read about a stage adaptation of Emma performed last week in Cedar Rapids…
On Saturday and May 10, the Ushers Ferry Historical Society of Cedar Rapids’ Parlour Theater Company will perform a theatrical version of the 1815 novel Emma. The show will begin at 7 p.m. both days at the Old Capitol Senate Chamber. Admission is free.
“[Emma] was a great choice because it is a fun story,†said society education coordinator Darrin Crow. “It is a fairly familiar piece of Jane Austen but not quite so well known as, say, Pride and Prejudice.â€
Juliet Stevenson Reads Austen…
The gals at Jane Austen Today provide an excellent feature on Emma 2‘s Juliet Stevenson, my favorite Mrs. Elton and the voice of several Austen audiobooks presented by Naxos. Naturally, one of them is Emma!
Not as Clueless as we thought?
Or perhaps moreso. 😉
Reader Keith just passed along the following from Movieline:
As If?
EXCLUSIVE: Clueless Sequel? Silverstone’s Rep Says No, Heckerling’s Rep Says No CommentWritten by Kyle Buchanan | 28 Apr 2009, 1:30 PM
The seminal 90’s comedy Clueless has certainly spawned some spiritual sequels, but it’s never had an actual one — though that hasn’t stopped rumormongers and wishful thinkers from gossiping about the possibility from time to time. Lately, though, a weirdly specific Star story has spread like wildfire online, claiming that Alicia Silverstone and writer/director Amy Heckerling were spotted in Tarzana (the valley?!) discussing a new chapter in the life of Cher Horowitz. Movieline got in touch with reps for both parties to find out what’s up.
“I have heard nothing about this whatsoever,†said Silverstone’s publicist, Elizabeth Much. “I would certainly be very surprised if this rumor has any truth to it.†Much is an old hand at swatting down Clueless 2 talk — last time she was contacted, erroneous reports were saying that Silverstone had discussed the sequel on Graham Norton’s talk show.
Then, we got in touch with a rep for Heckerling, who was more mysterious: “Officially, no comment.†Does that mean Star had it right, or might Heckerling be looking to leverage this sequel buzz for a career jolt in the wake of her direct-to-DVD I Could Never Be Your Woman? Developing…at least, until we hear that a frantic Brittany Murphy is stalking the streets of Tarzana, desperate to escape the Lifetime movie ghetto.
Thanks, Keith!
Clueless Sequel?
Various sources have been buzzing about a possible Clueless sequel starring Alicia Silverstone, who would reprise her role as Cher Horowitz. According to NZCity, original Clueless director and writer Amy Heckerling has written the screenplay.
Alicia Silverstone’s Clueless sequel
Alicia Silverstone is in negotiations to star in a ‘Clueless’ sequel, 15 years after the original made her famous.27 April 2009
Alicia Silverstone is to star in a ‘Clueless’ sequel.The 32-year-old actress is reportedly in talks with Amy Heckerling, the director and writer of the film – which was based on classic English novelist Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ – that made her famous 15 years ago.
The pair were overheard discussing the new movie while shopping in Tarzana, California, earlier this week.
A source told gossip blogger Perez Hilton: “They were talking about the script they’re working on and how exciting this is for them. It’s been a dream of Alicia’s to bring Cher back to the big screen. Amy is writing it, but Alicia is giving her tons of ideas.â€
Alicia hinted she was working on the sequel – reportedly titled ‘Clueless: High School Reunion’ – in an interview with Irish talk show host Graham Norton last November.
The film is rumoured to be going into production at the end of this month.
Alicia was just 18 years old when she shot to fame as Cher Horowitz, a ditzy rich teenager living in Beverly Hills.
Emma News Roundup
To recap…
It appears that rumors about a new BBC version of Emma are true. In November, 2008, it was thought that BBC might have greenlighted a new, four-part Emma adaptation written by Sandy Welch. According to the rumors, it would air in 2009. The screenplay has apparently been on hold since the mid-1990s:
TV drama kings fall out over Jane Austen
The London Independent
Jul 14, 1996
By Clare GarnerIt’s a saga that surpasses any literary classic: the rivalry of two television drama kings. And the prize is the latest Jane Austen TV spectacular.The winner – this time – is Nick Elliot, head of drama at the ITV network, who has just succeeded in the race to bring Austen’s Emma to the small screen. Not only that: he has lured away the whole production team responsible for the BBC’s world-beating version last year of Pride and Prejudice.The screenwriter Andrew Davies, the producer Sue Birtwistle and their back-up staff are taking their skills to the commercial channel and its story of Emma Woodhouse’s misplaced matchmaking. They were the team who brought to life on the BBC those perfect Georgian country house settings, lush costumes and formal dances that thrilled audiences around the world as they witnessed the wooing of the fiery Lizzie Bennet by the arrogant Mr Darcy.The loser is Michael Wearing, BBC head of drama serials,one of the corporation’s most talented executives and the man responsible for Pride and Prejudice.He might have had the Davies-Birtwistle Emma as a world-beating sequel – indeed he was offered it – but he had already promised the adaptation to someone else. “It was a very, very difficult situation,” he said yesterday. “I had already commissioned Sandy Welch, one of our BBC writers, to do Emma. We really were in a fix.” He felt bound to honour his word.
When the P&P team offered the project to Elliot at ITV he grabbed it, and the TV world is aware of the piquancy of his triumph. Wearing and Elliot are two of the most bitter personal rivals in television. Two years ago Wearing lost half his BBC job as head of drama series and serials.
To head drama series, and to sharpen BBC popular drama, John Birt, the director-general, brought in the managing director of London Weekend Television, who had overseen London’s Burning and The Knock. His name was Nick Elliot.
Wearing resigned at once. But 150 staff in the drama department, including leading producers, signed a petition in protest and he was persuaded to stay. And it was Elliot who ended up leaving last year, after only nine months, amid rumours that he was less than happy with the Birt regime.
Wearing complains that Elliot was the man who approved BBC programmes dreamt up before his arrival, only to defect back to ITV. “I feel that quite a lot of what’s been on the screen this year is actually the product of the time before he came.
“That was the great joke in the drama department. He comes for nine months and walks off knowing the entire BBC development scheme. We’d put Emma into motion almost a year before it became clear than Andrew Davies was doing his version for Elliot.”
Elliot is unrepentant. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said yesterday. “At the height of its success with P&P the BBC was turning away their star producer and their star writer.”
The single-episode, pounds 2.5m film of Emma, the highlight of ITV’s autumn schedule, is being shot at the moment. It stars Kate Beckinsale as the headstrong heroine, plus Mark Strong (Tosker Cox in Our Friends in the North), Samantha Morton (Tracy in Band of Gold) and the character players Prunella Scales and Bernard Hepton.
But the drama between the rival executives is just as fascinating for those who know them.
A senior drama producer who saw them at the BBC said: “They are like chalk and cheese. There was Elliot in his suit, looking as if he could be selling widgets. He would call departmental briefings with slides and market research and tell us that BCs don’t like Cracker. By contrast, Wearing has never been known to hold a meeting with more than two people. He doesn’t look like an executive. He thinks of himself as a maverick, an artist fighting for quality drama with a political edge.”
Andrew Davies, Wearing’s friend and BBC protege for 20 years, is suffering mild culture shock from his defection. At just two hours, which with advertisements comes to 103 minutes, his adaptation has to be very tight. “I wish the actresses could have worn the ads on their dresses like footballers do, so we didn’t have to have commercial breaks,” he said yesterday.
Expenses are tighter at ITV too. “We don’t get chauffeur-driven cars – we have to ride bikes. It’s fish paste sandwiches. There’s no margin for excess. We have to buy our own champagne. We’re really suffering.”
There’s also a “Bollywood” Emma in the works. According to BollySpice.com: “Anil Kapoor has announced that he will be producing a version of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ for [daughter Sonam] to star in…” Sonam Kapoor herself has publicly mentioned her desire to star in an Emma adaptation on at least one occasion. The Kapoors confirmed the film – titled “Ayesha” after its Emmalike heroine – in February, 2009. More details here and here.