Just back from PBS showcase in Dallas, where we got a preview of Ken Burns’ THE WAR, coming this Fall, as well as what’s coming up on AMERICAN MASTERS (Les Paul!!! … finally), AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, NOVA, FRONTLINE and more. BANISHED, a film by Marco Williams that screened at this year’s Nashville Film Festival, is coming to Independent Lens. There’s also a great three-part series by famed producer David Grubin on THE MYSTERIOUS HUMAN HEART. So much more to write about, including a world made of words (WORD WORLD) and a grammar-defending super hero (WORD GIRL) whose nemesis is a guy named “The Butcher.” Sounds like me when I was ten, without the grammar-defending thing. Mike the butcher scared me. I also had time for a brief visit to the Sixth Floor Museum, housed in the former Texas School Book Repository.
One announcement that got everyone excited (especially the ladies, but hey, real men, I’m told, read Jane Austen, according to a profile on Facebook) is that MASTERPIECE THEATER will broadcast adaptations of all of Austen’s six novels, plus a new drama based on her life. It’s the first time in television history that her books have been broadcast as a complete collection.
From the news release:
Beginning in January 2008 on PBS, MASTERPIECE THEATRE is inviting viewers to tune in on Sunday nights for “The Complete Jane Austen”: new presentations of Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility. The lineup will also include the acclaimed Emma starring Kate Beckinsale, and Pride and Prejudice, the Emmy award-winning miniseries that made Colin Firth a heartthrob.
(The ladies at the luncheon got a little crazy when that last bit of info was announced )
“Miss Austen Regrets,” a true story based on Jane Austen’s own letters and diaries, will be part of the four-month marathon.
Fan of Jane Austen? Learn more at the excellent Austenblog.
Take the Jane Austen Quiz.
Which of the six adaptations are you looking forward to the most? Let us know.
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[…] the meantime, we direct your attention to a post at the Nashville Public Television blog. The reporter was present at the PBS showcase in Dallas during which the event was announced and […]
[…] AUSTEN REVISITED AND REJECTED Back in May, I wrote about the announcement that Masterpiece Theatre will broadcast adaptations of all of Jane Austen’s six […]