Daisy Edgar-Jones will play the older sister, Elinor Dashwood, in the new Jane Austen adaptation.
The story follows Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, two sisters who, upon the death of their father, find themselves suddenly destitute, and pursue both love and financial security.
There’s no release date yet, but the film is now in production.
The details:
It’s Daisy Edgar-Jones’s most high-profile big-screen project to date
Yes, Where the Crawdads Sing and Twisters were big, but playing Elinor Dashwood, one of Jane Austen’s most beloved heroines—previously brought to the big screen by double Oscar winner Emma Thompson, no less, who secured her second statuette for her adapted screenplay for Ang Lee’s classic—somehow feels even bigger. The star of Normal People, Fresh, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where the Crawdads Sing recently proved her acting chops on stage too, with her starring role as the ferocious Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Brick, so we have no doubt that she’ll soar.
And as for her co-stars? Esmé Creed-Miles, the daughter of actors Samantha Morton and Charlie Creed-Miles, who was recently in Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, will be playing Elinor’s more naïve younger sister, Marianne, previously embodied by a rosy-cheeked Kate Winslet.
Then there’s Belfast’s Caitríona Balfe as the girls’ mother, Mrs. Dashwood (previously Gemma Jones, in Lee’s version); 1917 breakout George MacKay will step into Hugh Grant’s shoes as Elinor’s good-natured love interest, Edward Ferrars; Urchin star Frank Dillane will play the handsome and dastardly John Willoughby (previously Greg Wise); The Worst Person in the World’s Herbert Nordrum will reinterpret Alan Rickman’s solemn Colonel Brandon; and Hamnet’s Bodhi Rae Breathnach and the formidable Fiona Shaw will take on the youngest Dashwood sister, Margaret, and Mrs. Jennings, with whom the sisters stay in London, respectively.
It’s the somber older sister to Pride Prejudice
If Pride Prejudice is a fizzy glass of champagne, Sense Sensibility feels like a cosy cup of tea—its mood is more serious, sedate, and contemplative. The plot centers on the three Dashwood sisters—the eldest and most sensible, Elinor; the more free-spirited Marianne; and the much younger Margaret—who are devastated by the passing of their father. Along with their mother, they’re left with only a small inheritance, with their father’s grand estate instead falling into the hands of their half brother. Cast out, they move to a modest cottage, and Elinor and Marianne are drawn to a swirl of suitors: the older Colonel Brandon, the dashing John Willoughby, and the kindly Edward Ferrars. It’s still unclear how faithful this new film adaptation will be (Netflix’s Carrie Cracknell-directed, Dakota Johnson-led Persuasion, for instance, was freewheeling, to say the least), but it seems likely that it will at least echo the gentle and melancholy spirit of its Ang Lee-helmed predecessor.
The women-led behind-the-camera team is incredibly impressive
Georgia Oakley, the lauded filmmaker behind the BAFTA-nominated breakout Blue Jean, will be in the director’s chair, marking a splashy follow-up to her widely respected debut, while Diana Reid, the author of Love Virtue, Seeing Other People, and Signs of Damage, will adapt the novel—a pairing that raises our expectations even further.
It’ll capitalize on our recent bout of Austen fever
This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, as well as the 20th anniversary of Joe Wright’s wonderful, sun-dappled, Keira Knightley-centered Pride Prejudice, which was re-released in theaters to mark the occasion—and there’s even a new, Netflix-produced adaptation of the latter on the way. Here’s hoping this new Sense Sensibility arrives at the same time as that Pride Prejudice—that’s a Barbenheimer-style double bill guaranteed to set the internet alight.
