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Biopic on Austen begins filming in Dublin
Author Jane Austen's life is to be the subject of a film, Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as the lead.
Screen adaptations of Jane Austen's novels have been blockbusters, but now the author's own life is to be the subject of a film.
An £8 million movie detailing the thwarted summer love of Austen at 19 for a young and roguish Irishman, Tom Lefroy, a real life suitor, has begun shooting in Dublin.
"It is young love. It is Jane Austen in love, something you've never seen before, a complete departure from the usual oblique portrait of her as a spinster," Robert Bernstein, one of the producers, was quoted by The Telegraph, as saying.
Becoming Jane stars Anne Hathaway, as the protagonist, James McAvoy, star of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as her young Irish beau, and Julie Walters as Jane's mother.
"Anne has the perfect combination of intelligence, emotional vulnerablity and steely determination for our Jane," Julian Jarrold, the director, who made Kinky Boots, said.
The producers follow a long tradition of using Austen for inspiration. Six films have been made of Pride and Prejudice and Emma has been adapted five times. Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey have also all been filmed.
