"Articles 2007"

"Royal meeting for Colin"

North Scotland, 29 October 2007

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall met A-list actor Colin Firth during a visit to the British Film Institute (BFI) to celebrate the London Film Festival.

Charles and Camilla also watched archive footage - including some of a Visit To Berkhamsted, which was shot by a member of the public and shows Edward VIII meeting crowds in 1936.

Heartthrob Colin, who co-produced a film along with his wife Livia which is being shown at the festival, praised the event.

He said: "It compares very well with other festivals in terms of how alive the debate is here.

"It's not just a feeding frenzy for prizes and sales."

Hollywood actress Laura Linney added: "The arts are very beautifully woven into London." She said the festival was an excellent example of this.

Charles and Camilla viewed the work of artist and filmmaker Mark Lewis whose show is currently in the Gallery at BFI, Southbank.

They also met a number of young people involved in festival education projects.

Charles has been patron of the BFI since 1979.

BFI's director Amanda Nevill described the visit as "delightful".

She said: "The range of people that we have today, from the young kids having their first film experience to the glitz and glamour of Colin Firth and Laura Linney, it encompassed what the BFI is all about."

"British Independent Film Awards dominated by Joy Division biopic 'Control'" by Rebecca Davies.

Telegraph UK, 23 October 2007

‘Control’, a biopic about the doomed Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, has received an outstanding 10 nominations for the tenth annual British Independent Film Awards.

Sam Riley has been nominated for Best Actor and Best Newcomer BIFAs for his portrayal of Ian Curtis in 'Control'

The film's nominations include Best Film and Best Director for Anton Corbijn, while rising talent Sam Riley, who plays Curtis, is in the running for Best Actor and Most Promising Newcomer. His co-stars Samantha Morton and Toby Kebbell have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor / Actress.

Also competing for Best Film are ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father’, which stars Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent, David Cronenberg’s ‘Eastern Promises’, ‘Hallam Foe’, starring Jamie Bell, and ‘Notes on a Scandal’, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

Other multiple nominees include 'And When Did You Last See Your Father' (seven), 'Hallam Foe' (six), 'Eastern Promises' (five), 'Notes on a Scandal' (four) and 'Garbage Warrior' (three).

The awards were established in 1998 to celebrate and promote achievement in independently-funded British film.

Ray Winstone, who won Best Actor for his role in ‘Nil By Mouth’ at the first BIFA, has been awarded The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor, and James Bond star Daniel Craig will receive the Variety Award for bringing the British film industry into the international spotlight.

The jury consists of filmmakers and stars of British film, including actress and comedienne Kathy Burke, Children of Men star Chiwetel Ejiofor and director Neil Marshall (‘Dog Soldiers’, ‘The Descent’).

The awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday November 28 at the Roundhouse in London, and will be hosted by James Nesbitt.

"Jane Austen still makes stiff upper lips quiver ", by David Hinckley

NY Daily News, 20 September 2007

So it turns out that in addition to being cool, Jane Austen is also hot.

It's pretty much impossible to miss Austen these days, all over bookshelves, movie theaters and soon the TV screen.

She's one of the first sizzling flavors of the 21st century, which isn't bad for someone born in the 18th.

It's also not bad for an author whose reputation rests mostly on six novels in which, to be honest, little or nothing happens.

Her characters are so proper and chaste, they make Hannah Montana look like Paris Hilton. Heck, they make Dora the Explorer look like Paris Hilton.

So why, in the age of "Californication," does Austen still have siren-like appeal?

Maybe, suggests author and Austen fan Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, because there really is lascivious, lurid behavior in Austen's novels. She just lets it unfold in the minds of her characters and readers.

"I think she envisioned it plenty," says Kennealy-Morrison. "She just didn't explicitly write it. She writes nonpornographic porn, the between-the-ears sort."

Andrew Davies, who adapted Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" for the landmark 1996 BBC/A&E miniseries and is adapting four more Austen novels for "Masterpiece Theater" productions that will air early next year, agrees.

"These are stories about young men and women at a very crucial time in their lives, when they're boiling over with hormones," he said recently.

"Pride and Prejudice" heroine Elizabeth Bennet "runs everywhere," notes Davies. "And I think that running everywhere in Jane Austen is a key for being highly sexed, not having enough to do with your body."

Given this view, it's no surprise that Davies is the man who put Colin Firth in that wet shirt. Firth played the aristocratic, standoffish Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 1996 "Pride and Prejudice," and in one scene, not written by Austen, Davies has him cool off after a long horse ride by jumping into a pond.

Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle) at this point are in love - though neither of the two lunkheads has yet admitted it - and when she sees him in the pond, the white shirt clinging to his torso, the sexual electricity is as tangible as the water.

To many Janeites, this marks the moment when some of that Austen sex moved from the mind to the screen.

"Darcy is the thinking woman's bit of crumpet," suggests Kennealy-Morrison, "and Elizabeth is the thinking woman who's reading the book."

She's not alone. BookScan says 318,000 copies of "Pride and Prejudice" were purchased last year in the U.S., and that's just the tip of the Austen iceberg.

A romanticized version of her life, called "Becoming Jane," is scoring in theaters now, and "The Jane Austen Book Club" will join it tomorrow.

PBS will devote the first four months of "Masterpiece Theatre" in 2008 to "The Complete Jane Austen," with new productions of "Sense and Sensibility," "Mansfield Park," "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion" plus the earlier "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma." The PBS Austenfest will also include another new bio-drama, "Miss Austen Regrets," starring Olivia Williams.

At least two "Pride and Prejudice" musicals are in development, doubtless hoping to capitalize on the great good will generated in 2005 by the big-screen version starring Keira Knightley - who, perhaps not incidentally, immediately followed her Lizzie role by posing nude for Vanity Fair.

Six Austen-related books have also surfaced, including "Mr. Darcy's Diary" by Amanda Grange, a retelling of "Pride and Prejudice" from Darcy's viewpoint.

If it weren't for J.K. Rowling, Austen might be the hippest author in the world today. What other writer of drolly amusing British novels of early-19th-century manners has inspired an "action figure"?

Can a Jane Austen line of high-waisted dresses or a Jane Austen iPhone be long in coming?

Austen's real durability, however, lies in the fact that whatever her pop-culture heat is at any given moment, her core appeal is always solidly rooted in the six novels she crafted at a small desk looking out the front window of a brick house in Chawton, England. Famous folks who count themselves fans of those stories today range from Julie Chen, Nora Ephron and Janeane Garofalo to Miami Heat basketball star Dwyane Wade and B.B. King.

The books do share a common theme: young women struggling to find a suitable mate amid the challenging economic and class system of pre-Victorian England.

It's a world of ritual under a shadow of enormous pressure.

"For the girls, at any rate," says Davies, "you usually only get one chance of getting it right. If you don't, you're on the shelf for life."

No wonder sex keeps tapping the characters on the shoulder. Austen "just didn't explicitly write it," says Kennealy-Morrison. "She conveyed it all without saying so."

Andrew Davies conveyed it by telling Colin Firth to go jump in a pond.

"Mamma Mia! Brosnan's become the man with the golden tum", by James Tapper.

Daily Mail UK, 9 September 2007

The dashing 54-year-old actor revealed a surprising paunch when he stripped to a pair of floral swimming trunks during a break in filming his latest movie, a big-screen adaptation of the Abba stage musical Mamma Mia!

Looking considerably more svelte was his co-star, 21-year-old Mean Girls actress Amanda Seyfried.

The cast, also including Pride & Prejudice heart-throb Colin Firth, were relaxing on a yacht off the Greek island of Skopelos, where filming is currently taking place.

Diet another day: A paunchy Pierce Brosnan relaxes on a break from filming.

Firth, who turns 47 tomorrow, happily strummed an acoustic guitar as his cast-mates enjoyed the Mediterranean heat.

However Brosnan was not seen singing along – even though his role in the movie demands a duet with co-star Meryl Streep for the song SOS.

In the film, Seyfried plays Sophie, an 18-year-old who is getting married and is desperate to discover which of her mother's three ex-lovers is her real father.

Sophie's mother, played by Streep, is astonished when all three – Firth, Brosnan and Pirates Of The Caribbean actor Stellan Skarsgard – turn up to the wedding. It is these scenes that the cast are believed to be filming on the Greek island.

Brosnan has already shot some scenes at Pinewood Studios – on the same stage new 007 Daniel Craig used for Casino Royale. Brosnan admitted: 'I had this image of myself walking in wearing my Mamma Mia! clothes and seeing Daniel Craig hanging from a crane. But I felt comfortable in the end.'

He admitted that both Firth and he were struggling with the singing, but added: 'When it comes to the dance moves, he's a lot more nimble than me. It's going to be a battle. I am just concentrating on getting it right.'

"A star-studded ‘Mamma Mia!’ shot in Greece", by Panayiotis Panagopoulos

International Herald Tribune Greece and Cyprus, 3 September 2007

Islands provide outdoor locations for hit musical

Preparations are under way at Skopelos’s Kastani Beach. The bar shown belongs to Meryl Streep’s character.

Famous actors including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skaarsgard and Julie Walters are scheduled to visit Greece for the filming of ”Mama Mia!.“ Ranking as one of the most successful musicals of the past decades, ”Mama Mia!,“ which premiered in London in 1999 and is responsible for turning old Abba songs into hits for the second time, has enjoyed a solid run ever since. It has been performed in 130 cities all over the world – and is now expected at Athens’s Badminton Theater next May – generating a profit of some 1.6 billion dollars.

Outdoor filming will start this week on Skiathos and Skopelos, the two islands chosen by the Littlestar and Playtone productions to re-incarnate the anonymous Greek island where the musical is set. Playtone belongs to Tom Hanks’s wife, Rita Wilson.

Indoor filming, which took place at London’s Pinewood Studios, has already been completed and the film’s US release date is July 17, 2008. It will be distributed by Universal and in Greece by UIP.

Preparations

The famous cast members have not yet arrived on the two islands, but the crew has already set up parts of the set and both Skiathos and Skopelos are getting into Abba mode. About 200 people will move to the islands over the next few weeks, including the cinamatographer, Haris Zambarloukos, who is of Greek descent. The production company has posted announcements for extras for the crowd scenes in Skopelos which have met with a great response. Who would pass up the opportunity to be filmed alongside Streep, the actress with the highest number of Oscar nominations, or the former James Bond?

Two Skopelos students have set up a blog, skopelos07.wordpress.com, with information and photographs of the filming preparations.

A press conference on filming details is expected to take place soon, with representatives from the production as well as Tourism Minister Fanni Palli-Petralia, but it is not yet known whether it will be held in Athens or on Skopelos.

Singing Experience

Both Streep and Brosnan have singing experience. Brosnan had worked as a singer before turning to acting and Streep has sung in Robert Altman’s ”A Prairie Home Companion“ and in Robert Zemeckis’s ”Death Becomes Her.“

"Mamma Mia!" Film Due in Theatres in July 2008" by Andrew Gans / John Nathan

Playbill US / Canada, 1 September 2007

In less than a year moviegoers around the country will be humming the tunes of ABBA.

"Mamma Mia!" — the film based on the long-running Broadway musical of the same name — is scheduled to arrive in theatres July 18, 2008, according to the Universal Pictures website.

The movie musical stars Academy Award winner Meryl Streep in the role of Donna Sheridan. The cast also features Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Stellan Skarsgard and Dominic Cooper. The film is being directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who is making her feature-film debut. Lloyd helmed both the London and Broadway mountings of the international hit musical.

London's Daily Mail recently reported that three songs from the stage show have been dropped:

"Thank You For the Music," "Under Attack" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You."

The movie, however, introduces another ABBA song to book and screenplay writer Catherine Johnson's storyline, "When All Is Said and Done."

Based on the back catalogue of 70s pop group ABBA, Johnson's plot tells the story of bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan, who hopes to discover her father's identity on the eve of her wedding. She brings three men from her mother Donna's past back to the Greek island they last visited 20 years previously.

The show and film features music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Since the original London production opened in 1999, the musical has grossed over $2 billion worldwide.

The film, according to the Universal website, is described as such: "An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna (Streep) is about to let go of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends-practical and no-nonsense Rosie (Julie Walters) and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski)-from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own.

"On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities."

"Rome Film Festival unveils lineup", by Nick Vivarelli

Variety, 23 August 2007

First batch of titles include Lumet thriller, 'Past'

The Rome Film Festival has announced a first batch of titles, including European bows of Sidney Lumet crimer "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and Hector Babenco's Gael Garcia Bernal starrer "The Past," underscoring the tyro event's bent for mixing populist pics and artier fare.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Lumet are expected on the catwalk to tubthump the heist-gone-wrong-pic, which world preems in Toronto. Also segueing from a Toronto world bow is Babenco's dark love story, for which the Brazilian helmer and Garcia Bernal will be making the trek to Rome's Auditorium, organizers said.

Other early Rome entries are Spanish helmer Julio Medem's feminist fable "Caotica ana," starring Charlotte Rampling; Dario Argento's slasher "The Mother of Tears," toplining his daughter Asia; Italo auteur Silvio Soldini's Genoa-set "Giorni e nuvole" (Days and Clouds); and Steven Sebring's U.S. docu "Patti Smith: A Dream of Life," for which Smith will perform a live mix of music and poetry.

Rome's kiddie section, Alice in the City, has secured the world preem of U.S. helmer Brad Isaacs' New Mexico-set "Have Dreams, Will Travel," starring Val Kilmer, who also will travel to Rome.

Also unspooling in Alice is Brit helmer Anand Tucker's "And When Did You Last See Your Father?," with star Colin Firth expected.

Sundance docu winner "War/Dance" is among entries in the fest's more cutting-edge Extra selection.

As previously announced, Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" will bow at the fest with Coppola and protags Tim Roth and Bruno Ganz in tow.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" will open the Premiere gala section with star Cate Blanchett and helmer Shekhar Kapur on the Auditorium red carpet.

The second edition of the Rome Film Festival runs Oct. 18-27, and the full lineup will be announced Sept. 27.

"Dreaming of Darcy, dreading the gas bill"

The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 August 2007

WHEN you're a bookish girl you have crushes on fictional men, not real ones.

Others may cite Brad Pitt's turn in Thelma and Louise as a pivotal moment in their adolescent development, but for you it was more likely to be Heathcliff raging across the moors in Wuthering Heights and dreams of the young Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina. Or Will Ladislaw of Middlemarch - a total literary honey.

When Darcy snubbed Elizabeth at the ball in Pride and Prejudice, you felt her pain. Something similar probably happened to you at a school dance.

And when you watched the BBC adaptation of the novel, you gasped in delight as Darcy, played by Colin Firth, emerged from the lake, dripping wet and looking handsome in a way none of your pubescent contemporaries quite managed.

Of course, this sequence never took place in the book, but you did not care. You felt that had Austen included a Darcy bathing scene in which his chest hair was clearly visible and his breeches dangerously wet, it would have been just like this.

And one day you would have left Australia and travelled to Britain, and done a sort of literary pilgrimage to the places of your bookish dreams. You would have journeyed to Haworth to tramp the Yorkshire moors like a latter-day Bronte, and you would have visited Lyme Park and gazed at the pond, perhaps hoping for the sexy emergence of your very own Colin Firth. I had always thought that was just me, but it turns out it's not.

Literary tourism, fuelled by television and film adaptations, contributes up to £2.6 billion ($6.3 billion) a year to the British economy, according to a report out this week.

Tourists are flocking to British stately homes made famous by their roles in television period dramas or by being the backdrop to films. The most dramatic example is Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, which has had a 120 per cent rise in visitor numbers since it was featured in the Harry Potter films as Hogwarts, the boarding school for young magicians.

Colin Firth/Darcy and his clinging white shirt sent Austen fans into a frenzy — after the series aired, three times the usual number of visitors headed to Lyme Park, a National Trust property in Cheshire, to recapture the magic.

"British films and television programs play a powerful role in showcasing the UK to the rest of the world," said John Woodward, the chief executive of the UK Film Council, commenting on the findings. Of course, Austen's books and magical castles are not the real Britain. The real Britain is largely urbanised, much less white, and not as picturesque.

The real Britain is riots in Bradford, gun violence in Liverpool, and rainy summers in Brighton. This is the Britain the British are leaving in record numbers, according to figures released last week.

Last year 196,000 people quit the country, mostly to resettle in Australia, but also in Spain, France, New Zealand and the US, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics. They are emigrating to seek a sunnier lifestyle, but also because they worry about levels of crime, immigration and the economy.

The release of the figures caused much hand-wringing in the London press. The English are much less openly patriotic than Australians - they constantly worry about what it means to be English in the modern era, and the latest statistics fed into this national insecurity.

Is England about Austen and rose gardens, or is it really just a dreary island where the cost of living is too high and the clash of cultures too much?

It's both, of course. If they were alive today, chances are Darcy and his creator would have thoroughly disapproved of a culture where ill-educated footballers (and their perma-tanned wives) are idolised, and where fluffy reality television shows such as Celebrity Big Brother direct the national debate on race relations.

But Austen probably would have loved the verve of the English press - for all its faults, it is probably the wildest, most passionate, and most free press in the world - and she would have adored watching the bungling royals. She was, after all, a serious gossip.

Charles Dickens would have liked the sense of possibility and adventure that draws millions of immigrants to London every year, and D.H. Lawrence would have appreciated the page-three girls in The Sun every day.

And as writers they would have all loved the marvellous complexity that enlivens Britain in its post-Austen incarnation.

"Online Piracy The Last Legion, Advocacy Group says" by Gregg Goldstein

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter, 18 July 2007

The nearly $70 million Weinstein Co. actioner "The Last Legion" hits U.S. theaters in late August, but it was available for free Tuesday on Google Video. Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," 20th Century Fox's "Live Free or Die Hard" and the previously leaked Weinstein Co./Lionsgate Films Michael Moore docu "Sicko" also were found on the site by the National Legal and Policy Center, a Washington-based advocacy group that recently set up a top 50 chart of pirated films and TV series.

"Phoenix" and "Die Hard" were spotted Monday by NLPC, which searches with title keywords on Google Video's search engine and via Google's blog search. The latter finds sites where bloggers post information about uploaded videos which, as was the case with "Legion," might not include its title.

NLPC chairman Ken Boehm said that it's publicizing the piracy to "shame" the search engine. "Google says its responsibility is to take down any pirated material only when it is brought to its attention by the copyright owner (as mandated) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," he said.

"Critics argue that since Google is a highly profitable company and the most advanced search technology company, it could easily do a much better job at filtering out copyrighted material, citing the fact that Google has always been able to do a good job at blocking such things as pornography, beheadings, etc. They also argue that Google will selectively block unauthorized posting of copyrighted videos with companies it makes business deals with."

NOT BULLETPROOF

Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said the company "will cooperate with copyright holders to identify and promptly remove any infringing content (and) continue to take the lead in providing state-of-the-art DMCA tools and processes," but he added that no system is bulletproof, and that issues of policing site content are not cut and dry.

"Copyright status can only be determined by the copyright holder, and their preferences vary widely," Stricker said. "Some legal departments take down a video one day and the marketing department puts it up the next. Which is their right, but our community can't predict those things, and neither can we. No matter how good our video identification technology gets, it will never be able to read copyright holders' minds."

Despite widely publicized illegal appearances on Google Video and YouTube weeks before its release, "Sicko" was uploaded on the site Monday and again Tuesday, according to NLPC. A group spokesperson said the docu had been viewed more than 90,000 times, but not all of its information is reliable. The NLPC claimed the musical remake of "Hairspray" (due in theaters Friday) was online, but the screenshot it provided was taken from the original 1988 John Waters film.

A somewhat pixelated widescreen version of "Legion" was available on Google Video on Tuesday. On a T1 Internet connection, the film (available in two parts) appeared to come from a DVD screener or print and not a camcorder. One possible source of the bootleg might have been Russia, where the film has grossed $3.3 million since its April release. "Legion" was removed shortly after The Hollywood Reporter notified the Weinstein Co. about its Tuesday upload.

"We are outraged by illegal piracy," a Weinstein Co. spokeswoman said. "Protecting our product and the artists involved is of the highest priority. We are working with the preeminent security companies in the business, and they are using the latest technology available to combat this industrywide problem."

"Bollywood glitter adds glamour to Yorkshire grit" by Anushka Asthana

The Observer, 27 May 2007

The white-rose county is rolling out the red carpet for a galaxy of stars after seeing off New York, Sydney and Barcelona to host the Oscars of India's filmland next week, reports Anushka Asthana

Imagine crowds of beautiful women, draped in gold jewellery and red fabrics, dancing in sequence across the Pennines. Or a former Miss World falling theatrically into the arms of a muscled and almost impossibly good-looking actor on the windy beaches of the North Sea.

Such scenes are a long way from the usual entertainment associated with Yorkshire, which is still, for many, more Last of the Summer Wine than big-budget movie paradise. But India's top film-makers will be enjoying just such full-on glamour next week when the eyes of Bollywood turn to the county for the biggest event in the industry's calendar.

New York, Sydney and Barcelona were all in line to host the 2007 International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, otherwise known as the Bollywood Oscars, but organisers opted for Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull and York.

Yorkshire officials hope that, by showcasing the beauty of Britain's white-rose county through four days of glitter,

parties and even the odd celebrity cricket match, Indian producers will be lured towards choosing it as a future setting for films, complete with flamboyant dancing and singing through the streets (cobbled), along the beaches (windy, possibly chilly) and across the hills (steep, maybe wet).

'This was always an opportunity to showcase Yorkshire,' said Sabbas Joseph, director of the IIFAs, who chose the county after receiving a personal request from Tony Blair. 'The feedback from the industry has been phenomenal.'

"It is not just actors and film-makers. Five hundred million viewers across the world are expected to watch Bollywood's elite arrive next week. Stars who across south Asia are more famous than Brad Pitt and more loved than Nicole Kidman will be soon be wandering through the streets of Sheffield and Bradford.

Among them will be Amitabh Bachchan, the godfather of Bollywood, who has appeared in more than 130 films and won nearly 20 top awards.

Other names, barely known here but renowned across the subcontinent and among India's vast diaspora, include Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta.

With them will be Shilpa Shetty, made famous here by Big Brother, and British stars Sienna Miller and Colin Firth.

The Bollywood stars will bring their own entourage and host colourful shows with dancing and singing. Of course, it would not be Bollywood without another great Indian love. After hosting a test match between England and the West Indies, Headingley will be prepared for a celebrity spectacular. A cricket match will be umpired by Dickie Bird, introduced by Zinta and include a team packed with famous Indian actors. Shetty will be there to carry out the toss. For Bollywood fans it will be like watching George Clooney come in to bat against Antonio Banderas, with Cameron Diaz commentating.

The match will take place on the second day of the event, which will also include a forum bringing together Indian business people worth a total of £60bn, a polo match, film premiere and the highlight - an awards ceremony attended by most of Bollywood's top talent.

Thousands of fans will flock to Sheffield's Hallam FM arena a week on Saturday to try to catch a glimpse of their heart-throbs. Most will be hoping to see India's hottest couple - Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan.

Rai is a former Miss World, he is the son of a Bollywood legend. The fact that they met and fell in love on a Indian set was almost as cliched as the perfect Bollywood script. When they married last month it was one of India's most anticipated events. Fans climbed trees to try to get a peek, but with security as tight as it was for the Beckhams' wedding there was little chance of seeing anything. Even in Britain, Rai is now renowned following leading roles in films such as Bride and Prejudice and Provoked. Next week she and Bachchan are sure to be followed by a team of security guards.

Why is such a spectacle coming to Yorkshire? According to Joseph, it is because it is the biggest county in Britain, has never had a significant Indian investment and is home to many British Asians who make up some of Bollywood's most hardcore fans.

'Cineworld, Odeon and Vue all show Indian films as part of their repertoire now,' said Joseph. 'Sixteen per cent of releases in the UK are Indian films and last year nine made it into the top 10.'

He pointed out that Bollywood now contributes £200m to the UK economy every year through producers filming, distributing and exhibiting in the country. The amount is rising by 25 per cent annually. These four days will boost the Yorkshire economy by £10m and the event is likely to make top Indian film-makers much more interested in the county as a movie location.

Joseph would not be drawn into why New York, Sydney and Barcelona were turned down and said that they were each still in line for future bids. Since its launch in London in 2000, the IIFA's have been held in Sun City and Johannesburg in South Africa, and in Malaysia, Singapore, Amsterdam and Dubai.

This time, celebrity magazines across Asia and television chat-shows will be filled with tales of the journey of India's rich and famous to Yorkshire. As in Hollywood, they will be full of gossip, ranging from bitching and backstabbing to romance and who is likely to win what.

'This is one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies and it can really boost an actor's career,' said Akshay Kumar, one of the stars who will take to the stage in Leeds next week. He said Bollywood hits were being increasingly filmed in Britain, and Yorkshire could yet make the perfect location. Last year Kumar shot two films here: 'Everything is available in the UK and there is so much support.'

The growth in international demand for Bollywood has also led film makers to seek out new, non-Asian audiences outside India. Rang de Basanti, a film about corruption starring the British actress Alice Patten, daughter of Chris, the ex-Tory politician, is about to be relaunched by production company UTV, to attract British viewers.

The film has just been re-edited to reduce the amount of Hindi and has been cut (Bollywood movies are often three hours long) to bring it closer to the usual Hollywood-blockbuster length. It will be renamed The Colour of Sacrifice

The IIFAs will see the first major Bollywood premiere ever to be held in Yorkshire. The film is The Train, about a married man who falls for another woman. But a preview on a Bollywood website, glamsham.com promises 'something even more shocking that probably has never been seen before in a Hindi movie'. It will follow another controversial film, Provoked, which tells the tale of a battered British Asian housewife who eventually kills her violent husband. The film tells the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, from Slough, whose case set a precedent regarding the law's definition of 'provocation'.

Observers say it won't be long before Bollywood box-office takings start to rival those of Hollywood. Each year 3.1 billion cinema tickets for Bollywood films are sold in India compared with 2.9 billion for Hollywood hits in the US. At the moment that does not translate into the same amount of money because the vast majority of cinemas in India are single-screen and tickets cost on average 25p rather than $10.

But there has been a massive growth in the number of multiplexes across India where tickets are closer to £2.50. 'The Indian entertainment sector was worth $4.5bn last year and is already $10bn this year,' said Jyoti Deshpande, chief operating officer and commercial director of Eros International, one of the world's leading international distributors of Bollywood films.

'Films used to be distributed through small cinemas and DVD shops. Now it is Odeons, Cineworlds and Vues, while the DVDs are available in Virgin and Asda. Films are now showcased at festivals like Cannes and reviewed in the mainstream press.'

Bollywood, Deshpande added, was like Hollywood in the Thirties but was now growing at a phenomenal rate. It may not be long until names such as Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta are household names in the UK. They certainly soon will be in Yorkshire.

"St Trinian's promises class act" by Stephen Robb

BBC News, 20 May 2007

When the modern version of St Trinian's reaches cinemas this Christmas, its makers promise an anarchic view of British public school life that will be an "antidote to Harry Potter".

At the Cannes Film Festival, its stars Colin Firth and Rupert Everett were among cast and crew discussing the movie about the riotous girls' school, which is currently shooting.

Talulah Riley, who plays one of the unruly pupils, warns: "They will do anything and everything - there's drugs, there's sex, there's tattoos, piercings."

"It's going to shock some people," says co-director Oliver Parker.

The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954 launched the famed film series.

"It's curious because certain things will be a bit edgier and more challenging than they were, then again in the early films the girls are puffing away on cigarettes and of course you can't do that now," says Parker.

"I hope we have come up with something that's fresh and stands on its own."

The idea of a new version of an old favourite was suggested by Everett, who worked with Parker on An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Everett takes the dual role of the school headmistress and her brother, memorably played by Alastair Sim in two of the original movies.

"You should never really try and take on a role that has been played to the hilt - there is very little chance that you can do better," he admits.

Firth suggests: "You're very attractive - you're much more attractive than he ever was."

Among the figures used as inspiration for the headmistress is Camilla Parker Bowles, Everett confesses.

"She's a marvellous woman," he says. "She's got a sense of humour, and she likes a drink and a cigarette - she's my kind of girl."

Firth, who also starred in The Importance of Being Earnest, plays an MP planning to turn the school into a respectable institution when it nears bankruptcy.

His battle with the schoolgirls over the fate of St Trinian's sees him "humiliated in as many ways as possible", according to Parker.

"I am begging them to kill me off in this one," says Firth, in response to a question about possible sequels to the film.

"Let's see how people like this one first," says Parker.

He is co-directing the film with Barnaby Thompson, previously producer on a number of Parker's films.

The cast also includes Mischa Barton, star of US TV series The OC, Casino Royale actress Caterina Murino and TV presenter and comedian Russell Brand.

St Trinian's is due to finish shooting next week, having been filmed in and around Ealing Studios in west London.

Ealing Studios is famed for producing some of Britain's best-loved comedies in the 1940s and 50s, including Whisky Galore and The Ladykillers.

It returned to film-making in 2002 and has made one or two films a year since, but is now aiming to increase that to between three and six a year.

"We will be operating very much as a boutique version of the American studios," says managing director James Spring.

"In the same way that taking on Ealing Studios we have a great responsibility to its history, with St Trinian's we have a great responsibility to that history.

"They are great fun comedies, but with a real anarchic flavour to them.

"The film that we are making is very much based upon the values of the old St Trinian's movies."

"Camilla inspired St Trinian's role"

AP, 20 May 2007

Rupert Everett has admitted how Camilla Parker Bowles inspired his new role as a headmistress in the movie remake of St Trinian's. Everett, 47, plays Miss Camilla Fritton in the hotly-anticipated new British movie, which is being publicised at the Cannes Film Festival.

Everett and his British co-star Colin Firth, 46, have got over their long-running public feud to star together in the new film.

Everett, who came up with the idea for the movie, admitted: "Oliver (Parker, the director) had the idea of Camilla Parker Bowles and I thought of my mother and a few other characters and it came along like that really."

The actor said of the Duchess of Cornwall: "She's a marvellous woman. She drives around. She can make suggestions, work in the garden and she can do a bit of partying and wears nice hats and dresses and she's got wonky teeth. She's got a sense of humour. Likes a drink and cigarettes, she's my type of girl."

Co-director Parker said: "I was looking to find someone kind of glamorous and someone with a certain class, and a rich and complex face. There's something interesting about the structure of Camilla Parker Bowles' face."

Actress Talulah Riley, who plays student Annabelle Fritton in the movie, said: "For the girls at St Trinian's, there's no line. They do anything and everything.

There's drugs, sex and tattoos."

Co-star Gemma Arterton, who plays head-girl Kelly, added: "At the same time they're not vicious. They want to do their own thing. They just want to be free and creative. They don't want to really hurt anyone."

Firth and Everett discovered a mutual dislike for each other on the set of the film Another Country in 1984, with Firth then calling Everett "ghastly" and Everett retorting by labelling him "boring".

However, Bridget Jones star Firth said: "I thought I would probably never come to Cannes and the thought of coming back with him (Everett) was unthinkable. I seem to remember he refused to speak at the press conference in 1984. I think it was because I was there. We took a huge leap into friendship in the 18-year period... We had absolutely no respect for each other. We do now."

"Reborn Ealing pins hopes on film

Studio's 'St. Trinian's' launching at Cannes", by Adam Dawtrey

Variety, 11 May 2007

It's hard to imagine anything more English than Rupert Everett in drag, up to hijinks with a bunch of saucy schoolgirls.

But will they get the joke in Tokyo, Turin or Topeka?

Barnaby Thompson is praying they do. His ambitious project to restore Blighty's historic Ealing Studios to its former glory will reach a crucial moment this month, when its new international sales arm launches "St. Trinian's" at Cannes, amid as much hullabaloo as it can muster.

Expect to see nubile British starlets parading down the Croisette in gym slips, which should at least get the Japanese buyers through the door.

This $12 million caper, set in a posh girls' boarding school presided over by a strangely masculine headmistress played by Everett, is a contemporary reprise of a 50-year-old series of Brit films, much loved in Blighty but unknown abroad.

The old Ealing of the 1940s and '50s could rely on a strong home market to support classic comedies like "The Ladykillers," "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Man in the White Suit," without worrying about how they would play abroad. But the 21st century Ealing must tailor its Britishness to global tastes.

The debut of Ealing Studios Intl., headed by Natalie Brenner, thus reps a major turning point in the ability of the reborn studio to control its own destiny. Brenner's not just there to sell the movies, but to make sure Ealing makes only what the market wants to buy.

"St. Trinian's," which Thompson is co-directing alongside his old chum Oliver Parker, is actually the second Ealing movie Brenner has handled. Her first, the lame sex comedy "I Want Candy," was already well advanced when she arrived and, although she's too diplomatic to say so, clearly not the kind of parochial film she expects the studio to make in the future.

Brenner is much more optimistic about "St Trinian's." With Entertainment Film Distributors aboard for the U.K., the high concept -- a British version of "Mean Girls" -- plus the ensemble of Colin Firth, Lena Headey, Toby Jones, Caterina Murino and, of course, a busload of Blighty's most alluring young actresses -- presales are already rolling in Germany and Benelux.

Ealing is also stretching its brand beyond the narrow confines of British comedy. "From Time to Time," starring Maggie Smith, is a magical family tale by Julian Fellowes. The studio is even developing a dark U.S. caper with Dustin Hoffman producing.

As Thompson points out, the old Ealing was never just about comedy. But that's what it was famous for, and the classic posters on his walls are a constant reminder of the brand he's trying to live up to. The studio's patchy recent run with pics such as "Alien Autopsy," "Imagine Me and You," "Valiant" and "Fade to Black" reflects how hard it is to rediscover that old formula for quality British filmmaking with broad appeal.

With the library owned by StudioCanal, Ealing's only real link to its past is the name and the buildings themselves -- still in the long process of refurbishment that Thompson started when he rescued them from crumbling obscurity in 2000.

The studio, with its three soundstages and warren of offices to rent, is financially separate from Ealing's own production activities. The bricks and mortar nonetheless help intangibly to raise production finance, by giving investors confidence that the team is serious about building a sustainable business. According to m.d. James Spring, that's what encouraged Investec to provide gap finance for "St. Trinian's." The studio's symbolic importance to the British film industry also explains why the U.K. Film Council, which initially turned down "St. Trinian's," rode to the rescue when the tax funding collapsed two weeks before the start of shooting.

Now Ealing is closing a deal with a bank and an equity financier which will help bankroll 50% of the budgets for its films or third-party projects sold by the international arm.

After seven years of slogging, the new Ealing is still a work in progress. But out in the leafy west London suburb, something is finally starting to emerge from the rubble. What Ealing needs now is a hit to define its new era. Whether "St. Trinian's" fits the bill will be much clearer after the schoolgirls strut their stuff in Cannes.

"Last resort" by Upala KBR

Mid-Day, 10 May 2007

Aishwarya Rai’s Hollywood film The Last Legion will not get a big screen release in America;

DVD release more viable for producers.

Apparently, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s big Hollywood debut, The Last Legion (with Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley), is not so big after all.

Sources tell us that the film will be getting a limited theatrical release in the USA and will released on DVD soon after.

We think this will be a big blow for Ash, who has been pinning her hopes on the film to make a mark on the international film circuit.

The Last Legion has already premiered in Abu Dhabi on April 6 and Russia on April 19, and is slated for a limited release in America on August 24.

Says trade analyst Amod Mehra, ”For some producers, it’s cheaper to release the official DVD than spent huge amounts of money for theatrical promotions.

The Last Legion is not a big film by Hollywood standards. At least 500 such films are released on DVD in the USA every year.“

What about home?

Filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra, who directed Ash in Provoked and is familiar with the American film circuit, says, ”If The Last Legion has released in Russia, the producers are definitely thinking about its piracy, as the pirated DVD will be released all over the world from Russia.

In that case, it is better to have a proper DVD release than lose all revenue to the pirated version.“

That’s not all. Trade and distribution circles here feel the film might not be released in Indian theatres either. Says a prominent exhibitor on condition of anonymity, ”So far, no distributor has been approached to market the film in India. Moreover, there is no buzz about the film.

There is also a question mark over whether the film will be released in India post Aishwarya’s marriage to Abhishek, as there’s a buzz doing the rounds that the Bachchans are not keen for Indian viewers to watch intimate scenes between Ash and Colin Firth.“

Not a bad idea.

However, Mundhra feels it’s not all bad for Ash’s film. He says in Hollywood, a major chunk of film profits come from DVD releases.

Says Mundhra, ”The DVD market is where filmmakers make actual profits, as only print and publicity costs are recovered from a theatrical release.

Sometimes, even sequels to big film sequels like Pocahantas are made only for DVD release, called Direct To Video films. These are for low-budget or independent films that can’t get people into the theatre.“

"'Terabithia' director chases 'Moon' (Pic based on Goudge's novel)"

by Adam Dawtrey.

Variety, 23 April 2007

Following his hit with "Bridge to Terabithia," Gabor Csupo has chosen "The Moon Princess," another live-action family fantasy pic, as his next directing project.

"The Moon Princess," which is likely to shoot this summer as a U.K.-Hungarian co-production, is based on the children's book "The Little White Horse." It's the story of a 13-year-old girl's adventure into a magical world from which she must banish an ancient curse.

Colin Firth is set to star as the girl's eccentric uncle, with other cast yet to be announced.

Pic is being produced by the U.K.'s Spice Factory, U.S./Australian shingle Forgan-Smith Entertainment and Csupo's own Grand Allure Entertainment. London-based sales outfit Velvet Octopus is brokering the finance for the $25 million project and handling worldwide sales.

Csupo, co-founder of animation studio Klasky Csupo and producer of "The Rugrats" and "The Wild Thornberries," made his feature directing debut with Walden Media's " Bridge to Terabithia," which has grossed $75 million in the U.S. and has just started its international roll out.

About his latest project, Csupo commented, "'Moon Princess' is a magical new family film, an absolutely beautiful, dark and mysterious story."

Spice Factory topper Jason Piette said, "With Gabor at the helm, we believe 'The Moon Princess' has the potential to become a classic. He has a magical vision and an incredible sense of what makes kids tick. He will lend the film a richness and a comic timing that is going to reach out and touch a wide audience."

Lucy Shuttleworth and Graham Alborough have penned the adaptation of Elizabeth Goudge's classic novel. The script was developed with funding from the Australian Film Commission.

"Evening with author to aid Storrs Library" by Denise Favro Schwartz

The Republican USA, 14 March 2007

"Elinor Lipman"

LONGMEADOW - Northampton author Elinor Lipman will present an evening of entertaining dialogue in a benefit for the Storrs Library on March 31 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Coffee and desserts provided by Longmeadow's Bon Vivant's will be served. There will be a question-and-answer session following Lipman's presentation. Signed copies of her books will be sold.

In an interview at the Hotel Northampton recently, Lipman said she will discuss "the writing life, how to get started in writing" and her novels, including her most recent, "My Latest Grievance" and her first, "Then She Found Me" which is in film post-production. Helen Hunt directed the film and starred in its lead role. Bette Midler and Colin Firth are also cast. The film is scheduled for release in the fall.

"I'll talk about the film," Lipman said, sipping skinny decaf latte. "It's the thing!"

Written more than 18 years ago, "Then She Found Me" follows Lipman's character April Epner through a period when her quiet and loving adoptive parents have just died and her birth mother, a brash TV talk show host, announces her existence and forever changes April's world. The book combines Lipman's deft use of dialog with characters who bring to mind people readers probably have met in their lives, whether they want to admit it or not. Though comedic in many ways, tough issues like adultery, loyalty, and loneliness surface in the book. Lipman's good writing binds the layers of alternating emotion.

The author said that the film deviates from her novel in some ways but that Hunt's changes make sense for the screen. Lipman said that she did not meet Hunt until one year ago although Hunt had optioned the novel years ago and the two had exchanged e-mail for some time before they met. "It was Christmas 2005 when I read the screenplay," Lipman said. "I e-mailed her (Hunt) and said how much I liked it."

"You have no idea how relieved I am," Hunt e-mailed back.

Reservations for the event featuring Elinor Lipman must be made no later than March 17 by personal check made payable to the Friends of the Storrs Library. Checks should be sent to Karen Glass, 330 Merriweather Drive, Longmeadow, MA, 01106. For more information call (413) 567-7127.

"St. Trinian's' adds cast: Firth, Everett, Watson on board Ealing pic"

by Adam Dawtrey

Variety, 9 March 2007

"Colin Firth"

Emily Watson, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and comedian Russell Brand are set to star in "St. Trinian's," Ealing Studios' new version of the classic British comedy franchise that spawned several popular movies in the 1950s and 1960s.

Ealing topper Barnaby Thompson, will make his helming debut, co-directing with his regular collaborator, Oliver Parker. Thompson and Parker will also share the producing credit.

"St. Trinian's," originally inspired by books and cartoons by Ronald Searle, centers on the madcap adventures of a group of unruly girls who attend the eponymous boarding school. More info here

The latest revival is written by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft.

Watson will play the central teacher character (played in the original pics by Joyce Grenfell), while Everett will play the double cross-dressing role of the headmistress and her unscrupulous brother (originally Alistair Sim). Brand will play Flash Harry, the local small-time crook who helps the girls get into scrapes. Firth will play Geoffrey Thwaites.

Cast also includes Caterina Murino ("Casino Royale"), Jodie Whittaker ("Venus"), Talulah Riley and Tamsin Egerton; Richard E. Grant and Stephen Fry do cameos.

Production is due to begin March 26, having delayed a week following the U.K. government's March 2 tax clampdown, which sunk part of the financing from Ingenious Film Partners.

Entertainment Film Distributors is co-financing the film and taking U.K. rights, and Thompson is in the final stages of securing the remaining coin. Ealing's own sales arm is handling foreign sales.

"The Belles of St. Trinian's" started the franchise in 1954, followed by "Blue Murder at St. Trinian's" in 1957, "The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's" in 1960 and the "The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery" in 1966. The series was revived in 1980 with "The Wildcats of St. Trinian's." The latest movie is not a remake of any previous "St. Trinian's" adventure but an attempt to create a 21st century version of the franchise.

"Barnaby Thompson"

"St. Trinian's"

"Rupert Everett"

"Jane Austen - why the fuss?" by Denise Winterman

BBC NEWS UK, 9 March 2007

With newspapers giving away her novels, Pride and Prejudice being voted the nation's top book and a new biopic in the cinemas, Jane Austen is riding the crest of a revival. But for those who've never picked up one of her books, what's the big deal?

For many women Jane Austen's appeal is encapsulated in two words: Mr Darcy.

It might not have been faithful to the book, but when Colin Firth, as Fitzwilliam Darcy, strode out of a lake in a wet shirt and breeches, in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, you could hear half the population applauding artistic licence.

After that now infamous scene, women across the land - single or not - said goodbye to waiting for their Prince Charming to come along and sweep them off their feet. They wanted a Mr Darcy.

It seems we just can't get enough of Austen. On Friday a film about her life - Becoming Jane - opens nationwide. Four adaptations of her novels are due on ITV this year alone and the man who gave us "that" Darcy moment - writer Andrew Davies - is adapting Sense and Sensibility for the BBC.

Last week Pride and Prejudice topped a poll of the books "we cannot live without" and Penguin is preparing to re-issue all of Austen's novels to meet the predicted rush for copies after Becoming Jane's release.

But not everyone is a fully conscripted member of her fan club. Indeed, Austen has a habit of dividing opinion, often down gender-specific lines. So what is it about Austen?

'Claustrophobic'

Her creation of characters, the clever dialogue and the irony with which she writes that makes her stand out from other writers, say experts.

"They are easy to read and have a simplicity that is hard to get as a writer, which Austen worked hard to achieve," says Professor Janet Todd, the general editor of the nine-volume Cambridge edition of the Works of Jane Austen.

"But it's a surface simplicity, there is a lot more going on. It combines wish fulfilment with a sense of the unlikelihood of it happening. There is always a modification to the romantic ending which points us back to real life."

Making her novel work on different levels means people can take what they need from them, say critics. You can choose to see the politics and feminism in them, but if you don't want to take on those issue you can "turn a blind eye".

Yet it's not all one big love-in. They might be in the minority, but Austen has her detractors. And despite the stereotypes, they're not all men.

"I think she betrays her time and I'm always gob smacked by what she ignored," says Celia Brayfield, author and lecturer at Brunel University. "She focused on such a narrow strain of human reality. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the Napoleonic War going on at the time when she was writing, she doesn't mention it.

'Enemy territory'

"There is no poverty in her novels, no corruption, ambition, wickedness or war. Yes her wit is enchanting and her human observations enduringly accurate, but the world she writes about is so tiny. I find it claustrophobic."

It's all too graceful and lacks guts, says writer Zoe Williams, who prefers those other 19th Century romantic writers - the Bronte sisters.

"I'm not crazy for Austen. The Brontes' novels are so overheated, so female, you have to look them in the eye when you read them.

"Austen's popular because everyone likes a good costume drama and with Austen you know what you're getting. You're guaranteed a manor house, daughters, dresses and weddings. You're not with authors like Gaskell and Dickens, their stories are not so pretty."

AUSTEN FACTS

Born in 1775 in Hampshire

Died in 1817

Sense and Sensibility was her first novel and published in 1811 at her own expense

Pride and Prejudice published in 1813

Too "nice" or not, the characterisation and dialogue of her novels have made them ripe for TV and film adaptation. According to some it's talented film makers, casting directors and actors who are keeping Austen's stock so high.

"In recent years the one person who has done the most for Austen's popularity is Emma Thompson," says Williams. "She wrote the screen play for the film Sense and Sensibility and won an Oscar for it. It is the definitive Austen film and that's largely down to her."

She may have a point: when we think of Darcy do we envisage the novel or Colin Firth? If he hadn't been cast to play the part - and he very nearly turned it down because he didn't think he had the sex appeal the role required - would the book be topping the "nation's favourite" list?

Some purists argue that by "sexing up" Austen's novels for a modern audience has resulted in the more complex social and political commentary being lost. But is the hunt for ratings necessarily a bad thing?

Unsophisticated

"Those films have made Jane Austen into a brand," says Brayfield. "I hate them with a passion but you have to admit they do a great job of selling 19th Century literature.

"Often my students are only inspired to grapple with Austen after seeing a film of one of her novels with Keira Knightley in it, but at least it's a way in for them."

Knightley might also draw in another audience that has issues with Austen - men. It's by no means a rule, but they don't usually find period drama an appealing combination of words. While Austen's wit and irony might appeal, the romance usually does not.

There's always the exception of course - and, on paper at least, Phil Hilton, ex-editor of lads' magazine Nuts, couldn't be more distanced from the stereotypical Austen fan. But Hilton freely confesses his love of her work and says Austen has a false reputation simply as "posh, romantic fiction".

"She is fun, dry, ironic - as funny as any male writer out there," he says.

"She is about more than romance, that's just the engine that drives the plot along. Unfortunately when adapted for film and TV the good stuff often ends up on the cutting room floor in favour of a handsome actor walking out of a lake.

"The challenge is to get men to read one of her books, most would like it if they did. I was forced to read Austen at school and discovered her that way, but males usually considered her novels 'owned' by women and enemy territory."

Critics tend to see this "romantic image" as a failing of the ironic Austen, says Professor Todd. But saying her books are just about women and marriage is a very "unsophisticated reading" of her novels, says Williams.

Maybe Austen was simply very shrewd in her choice of subject, says Gill Hornby, author of Jane Austen: The Girl with the Magic Pen.

"Her novels are only about romantic love and family life and they are two of the few things that haven't change in the world since she was alive. Both things still absorb us and annoy us in equal measure. If she'd written about the Napoleonic Wars no one would have read her books."

"Then She Found me"

IndieWIRE, 7 March 2007

Helen Hunt's decade-long struggle to get Elinor Lipman's novel to the screen is nearly complete. Marking her directorial debut, Hunt also wrote the screenplay and stars along with Bette Midler, Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick.

Currently in post, the story of a schoolteacher (Hunt) who is found by her obnoxious talk show host birth mother (Midler) has fascinated Hunt since she optioned the book soon after winning the Best Actress Oscar for "As Good As It Gets" in 1997.

After bouncing from studio to studio with the project, Hunt brought it to Killer Films two years ago and the team of Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel and Christine Vachon found financing and got the project rolling this past September in Brooklyn.

"We were interested in making [Hunt's] first film but it's just a really interesting [project]," says Koffler.

"It looks at the way one woman pursues happiness and fulfillment and what that means to her."

Koffler also adds that with Hunt's involvement people like Salman Rushdie and Lynn Cohen ("Sex and the City") jumped to the chance to have cameos. "Helen was a magnet to interesting talent," she says. "She was fantastic with them in the auditioning process and obviously as an actress is really sensitive to that dynamic so it was a fun casting process."

Shot in 28 days on 35mm by Peter Donahue ("Junebug"), the film is being edited by Pam Wise ("Transamerica"). Along with Killer Films, Connie Tavel is also producing. John Wells, Walter Josten and Blue Rider Pictures' Jeff Geoffray are executive producing.