While it’s hard to imagine that there is a sizable interest in seeing the cinematic telling of a yet-to-be-published graphic novel based on Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” that not only moves the action to modern times but also appears to focus on Jane’s paramour/boss Edward Rochester, Fox 2000 seems to think so, as the studio has just paid “a deal worth low seven figures” for the rights to just such a novel. Alrighty then.
THR reports that the studio has nabbed the rights to “Rochester,” a new graphic novel coming from Archaia Publishing about that very subject, and already set Aline Brosh McKenna to pen the adaptation. Details on the project are slim, but we’re certainly interested in seeing a nineteenth century-set novel about governesses and sprawling estates and orphans and loons in the attic translated to the modern age. We are, however, less interested in seeing the book’s plot translated through the eyes of Edward Rochester, especially because Bronte’s book includes far, far more than just the Jane/Rochester love affair (seriously, it’s really only about a third of the book).
McKenna, though first known for her rom-com-ish work on films like The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses, Morning Glory, and I Don’t Know How She Does It, has steadily moved away from her fluffy roots as of late. She most recently penned We Bought a Zoo for Cameron Crowe, wrote the new live-action Cinderella with Chris Weitz, and even has the main writing credit for the new Annie. She’s certainly mixing things up, and the modern retelling of a classic tale does seem like something she’s compelled to pen lately.
Rochester will also be produced by Simon Kinberg and Stephen Christy and, as THR notes, this new project is “a reunion for McKenna, Kinberg and Christy as the trio previously teamed up to adapt Archaia’s acclaimed sci-fi graphic novel series Rust.” That’s yet another very different film for McKenna, one the hopefully signals that she never needs to write a bad rom-com for Katherine Heigl.
