The "Austen Family Revelry" reading group discussion, which took place on March 13, 2016, featured several themed activities, including the movie script scenario:

Margaret Harshbarger took up the challenge and has contributed her movie script proposal, "Sex and Violence on the High Seas:  The Story of Charles Austen, brother of JANE AUSTEN," to be shared on our region's website. Enjoy!

TO:    Krank M. Owt, Head of Studio, EU Productions
FROM:    Annie Ting Formoney (aka Margaret Harshbarger)
RE:    Treatment for a new cheap movie as requested, incorporating JANE AUSTEN
Working Title:    Sex and Violence on the High Seas:  The Story of Charles Austen, brother of JANE AUSTEN

The scene opens with our hero, Charles, on board a sailing ship (one of those old, multi-masted jobs), watching the swabbing and floggings performed by sweat encrusted, naked-torso’d mates.

As his gaze shifts to the sky, the music swells for a flashback to a happy childhood with his beloved sister JANE AUSTEN. Suddenly, he is brutally ripped from her bosom and sent to HM Navy following in the footsteps of his older brother Frank. We watch our young hero as he learns the ropes (literally) and the subtleties of swabbing and flogging.

Flashback fades back to Charles and a frenzy of activity as an enemy ship appears. (All ship scenes can use stock footage for background and battle action (Mutiny of the Bounty, Master and Commander, etc.). After a satisfying scene of brutality and mayhem, the enemy ship is boarded and eventually sunk.

Scene shifts to Charles receiving his naval prize money and hurrying to buy topaz crosses for his sisters Cassandra and JANE AUSTEN.

Scene shifts to the high seas with land in sight. It is Bermuda, the island of Charles’ great love Harriet Palmer, where her father is the Great High Poo-Bah in Charge. On the way to see Harriet, Charles is driven by plantations with lots of evil slave labor (whips and stuff).

He and Harriet, after a steamy love scene, pledge their undying passion. Charles rushes off to her father to ask for her hand in marriage, but Harriet’s father is deaf and thinks Charles wants the older and plainer sister, Frances, and so gives his permission, glad to get her off his hands. When he realizes the mistake, Charles (having been taught manly honour by his sister JANE AUSTEN) rushes from the Governor’s Mansion and departs for a brothel in town to drown his sorrows. (We could have a Voodoo zombie scene here at the brothel, which would really vamp up the sex and violence. This would add 30 minutes to the film’s length. I leave the decision to the producers.)

Scene changes to a violent storm at sea (more stock footage). Charles’s wife is dying in childbirth. (Chance here for crashing waves and thunder corresponding to his wife’s screams and moans.) After a very affecting burial at sea (ten-hankie scene), our hero, who is now captain of the ship gives the command to make for Bermuda. (Swell of romantic music.)

Scene shifts to Charles and Harriet sailing into the sunset, which fades into a scene of JANE AUSTEN reading a letter from Charles, sobbing with joy.

The end.


I feel this movie would do well worldwide, as it will have the maximum of sex and violence. Also, it has the JANE AUSTEN cache and audiences will watch anything British. Viewers, especially in America and Australia, will eat it up. Trust me.

Thus begins Seth Grahame-Smith’s parody of Pride and Prejudice, now made into a movie to which JASNA members were invited for a sneak preview January 22. Since most of you did not avail yourselves of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Stephanie Fleming and I thought we’d let you in on what you missed. Please be aware that this description includes spoilers.

The story begins in a Regency England threatened not by the French, but rather by unruly masses of zombies. The zombies are the result of a mysterious infection, which renders its victims “undead” and which is spread through biting living humans. In this Regency England, young ladies of accomplishment don’t just cover screens and speak French, they also must be skilled zombie warriors and speak either Japanese (preferably) or Chinese, depending on where they received their combat training. Thus it is not just rain which threatens Jane as she heads to Netherfield for dinner on horseback, but also zombie hordes in want of more brains.

Grahame-Smith credits Jane Austen as “co-author” of his book, and indeed, the book fairly well hews to Jane’s original story, mainly adding in zombie attacks at appropriate moments and providing what some readers (myself included) found to be a much more satisfying end for Mr. Wickham than merely being banished to New Castle to join the regulars. The movie, on the other hand, deviates from Grahame-Smith’s book (and from Jane Austen’s story) in a number of important ways. You will be glad to know that Mr. Collins still makes an offer to Lizzy, whose refusal still receives approval from Mr. Bennet. And Elizabeth still tries to kill Mr. Darcy after his rather rude proposal (actually, this fight scene is one of the more entertaining parts of the film) and fights Lady Catherine (England’s most successful zombie killer in the book and movie) with swords and daggers rather than words. However, Austen’s/Grahame-Smith’s story is substantially simplified and changed for the movie. There is no trip with the Gardiners to Pemberley, and Lydia does not run away with Wickham to London. Instead, the movie includes a completely new plot line involving a mysterious Lazarus Church, where some zombies are hiding out eating pig brains in the hope (we are told) of living in peaceful co-existence with living humans. Wickham is a liaison to this community and – gasp – the community is not so benign as it is made out to be. Elizabeth’s feelings for Darcy in this film version overtly surface when Darcy rescues Lydia from Lazarus, where she has been taken prisoner by Wickham. Elizabeth reveals her true feelings for Darcy as he lays apparently unconscious after a climactic zombie battle at the walled city of London. Wickham does get his just reward in the movie, but it’s not nearly as delightful (in the book he is rendered paralyzed and incontinent after a carriage accident). 

Darcy is well played in the movie by Sam Riley, best known for his role as Ian Curtis in Control, a biopic about the lead singer of the post-punk bank Joy Division (OK, I had to Google Joy Division, too). A leading zombie killer, this Darcy doesn’t just put people off with his haughty behavior, he also disrupts dinner parties by loosing carrion flies to detect latent zombies (the flies can find undead flesh), and unceremoniously beheading them at the table. Lily James of Downton Abbey fame gives a feisty performance as Elizabeth, and is enjoyable as an action hero version of the Jane Austen heroine, who declares she will never trade her sword for a ring. Who-vians will recognize Matt Smith as Mr. Collins. Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) is the zombie-decimating Lady Catherine. 

This movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is clearly more zombies than Pride and Prejudice, although it’s entertaining to note that, apparently, zombie aficionados aren’t entirely satisfied with it as a horror film:

Yes, DecayMag.  Who knew?

For me, the actual “added genre” in the movie – zombies – worked as a parody. Much has already been written about sub-currents of dread in Pride and Prejudice related to threats of invasion and war, and the zombie threat clearly personifies that dread. But more importantly, I think the present day popularity of zombie-themed entertainment reflects our own sub-currents of dread in an increasingly uncertain world. Thus the zombie threat connects the modern audience directly with people in Jane’s world. And even the substituted plot line of the Lazarus Church (clearly added to up the zombie-ante) retains a connection to Austen’s original – can’t Darcy’s intervention to effect Lydia’s marriage be seen as rescuing her, in a sense bringing her back from the metaphorical “death” that her flight with Wickham imposed?

Don’t get me wrong. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is not a good movie. But it is good fun. ​

Last August, we shared news that production had begun on a new Jane Austen documentary, "Jane Austen:  Overcoming Pride and Prejudice," by Fuschia Films. 

This year, some of the footage from that documentary is showcased in a short film entitled "In Love with Jane Austen," which is being screen at Cannes at this year's festival. Below is information about the short film, as well as details of its Cannes debut. 

So exciting! More news about the feature-length documentary is available here online at http://janeaustenproductions.com/1/production-news/ .

Exciting film updates -- and film stills! -- of the documentary feature film Jane Austen: Overcoming Pride and Prejudice! Here's the latest, official news from Fuschia Films:

Hot off the press, here’s the latest exciting news! Filming has actually started and several interviews have already been filmed, including actor, David Bamber who played a wonderful Mr Collins in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. International composer, Carl Davis, who wrote the musical score for the same production has also been interviewed alongside his wife, actress Jean Boht, who starred in Sue Pomeroy’s acclaimed theatre production which launched the same year. We have other exciting interviews lined up with writers and actors involved in stage and screen productions of Jane Austen’s books.
 
We have also just released our second teaser for the film on Facebook. This was filmed in gorgeous Bath, where Jane once lived, and will give you a flavour of the famous ‘Netherfield Ball’. 

[To view the second teaser, click here at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153208456790048 ]
 
There is also a new Twitter account especially for the film @JaneAustenFilm, if you are on Twitter you can receive direct updates from there.
 

The new film 'Austenland,' which premiered at Sundance this past January, has opened in select cities (no word yet on when it will reach the Pacific Northwest, but be on the lookout for showing here in the next few weeks). At the Sundance Film Festival, which honors independent films, 'Austenland' was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

Based on the popular book by Shannon Hale, the film has garnered decidedly mixed reviews, some of which are linked below. If you have links to more reviews, please include them in the comments!

• 'Austenland' has sense of humor and literary sensibility (Cherry Hill Courier Post)
• ‘Austenland,’ movie review (NY Daily News)
• Review: AUSTENLAND, A Clumsy, Unfunny, And Insufferable Comedy (Twitch)
• In Want of a Spouse (Nay, a Life) (NY Times)
• Austenland:  Frothy, teen-friendly romcom skims surface but is still fun (CommonSense Media)

This week's Movie of the Week:  the 2008 TV miniseries of Sense & Sensibility.

This miniseries was written by Andrew Davies and received consistently high-praising reviews at the time it was released. It has an 8.1 user rating on IMDb, and was also nominated for 2 Emmy awards.

Have you seen this adaptation? What are your thoughts on it? And how do you think it compares to Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning 1995 adaptation?

The Movie of the Week feature (see left) comes from the "Jane Austen Fan Kit" application available for iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch screens. You can read a prior blog post that includes a gallery of screenshots by clicking here.