Effie (2012)

Emma Thompson has written the screenplay for Effie, the period biopic of Euphemia Gray who was married to the art critic John Ruskin in 1850s London, and later fell in love with his protegé John Millais.

CAST:

Effie - Dakota Fanning
John Ruskin - Greg Wise
John Everett Millais - Tom Sturridge
Ruskin's parents - Derek Jacobi and Julie Walters
Lady Elizabeth Eastlake - Emma Thompson
Sir Charles Eastlake - Edward Fox

Filming is expected to begin this October in London, Scotland and Venice

Source: Deadline via Comingsoon.net

Brave (2012)

Brave, an animated film due out next year from Disney / Pixar features some familiar names providing the voice talent.

Synopsis: Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In Brave, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts. Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch (Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.

Poster found at Rope of Silicon

Sense & Sensibility: Lucy's cheeky letter to Elinor

In the early days of filming Sense and Sensibility, director Ang Lee requested that the actors write background information about their character's "inner life". While some actors balked at this homework, actress Imogene Stubbs took the task to heart and wrote an imagined letter from Lucy to Elinor, some years after their respective marriages. Emma Thompson included it in the Screenplay and Diaries book on the film and deemed that Imogene had the prize-winning letter!

I found it to be quite entertaining so here is an excerpt from Lucy Ferrars letter to Elinor Ferrars:

Dear Elinor,

Robert and I have been enjoying a splendid weekend with the Prince Regent, with whom, I declare, I feel quite at home, and who is a veritable gentleman towards we ladies . He has called me 'sumptuous' and 'frivolous' by turns all weekend, and even remarked on my famous curls - enquiring whether 'God did all' or did they require 'feminine assistance'? How we laughed!

My dear Elinor- I feel the time has come to have a little discussion about the past, but before I begin, do tell - how are your precious family? Is poor, pale Marianne happy now with the marvellously competent, mature husband? I shall never forget the pathetic lachrymosity (my! the vocabulary one acquires in 'society') of her warbling, when that wretched scoundrel left her innocent, trusting self for material advantage. Well - he must live with his shame. We can be grateful for that at least. Is darling Margaret behaving herself? I do so miss her mischievous ways, and have quite forgiven her the time when she placed a beetle in my soup, and then laughed fit to burst as I was carried upstairs in a faint. How could she know how close I was to choking to death? How could she know how deeply affected I was by the experience? How could she know at that tender age that one day I might be in a position to offer her assistance financially, or an entry into polite society, and might not care to forget such behaviour? I jest - and for proof, enclose a bonnet-ribbon to prettify that sweet, homely face.

Has Mrs Jennings managed to lose weight, and has your mother gained any? If only a doctor could cut pieces off one person and transfer them to another, how content we should be! ...

Read entire letter here
(page 317 on scribed.com, not page number of book)

Howard's End (1992)

"Howards End is E.M. Forster's beautifully subtle story of the crisscrossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain--and of a remarkable pair of women who can see beyond class distinctions. Dramatic and tragic, but also surprisingly funny, this James Ivory film focuses on a pair of unmarried sisters (Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar, and Helena Bonham Carter) who befriend a poor young clerk (Samuel West) and, without meaning to, ruin his life. Meanwhile, Thompson also makes the acquaintance of a dying neighbor (Vanessa Redgrave), who leaves her a family home in her will--which her husband (Anthony Hopkins) destroys. But, ironically, he meets and falls in love with Thompson, even as their paths once more intersect with the increasingly miserable young clerk. Nuanced acting, gorgeous but muted cinematography, and a beautifully economical script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, which also won an Oscar. "
[Amazon review by Marshall Fine]

Trailer (with spoilers - basically gives away plot)

Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson in 'Song of Lunch'

Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson (both in Sense & Sensibility) collaborate in this 50 minute drama for BBC2.

The Song of Lunch is a dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem, telling the story of a book editor who, 15 years after their break-up, meets his former love for a nostalgic lunch at the Soho restaurant they used to frequent. As the wine flows, the couple rake over their failed relationship.

Here's part 1 of 4, the rest can be found here

[photo from BBC]

Emma Thompson discusses "My Fair Lady" screenplay

I know there are many who aren't fond of anyone remaking the classic My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison but here's an article with Emma Thompson discussing some of the ways that she's approaching her screen adaptation...

"I didn't treat it as an icon in my mind," says the screenwriter. "I just looked at it and said: 'How could it be improved?' So I was very cheeky."

That cheekiness began with a much tougher look at Eliza's father, the boozy Alfred P. Doolittle. Quite simply, Thompson views him as a manipulative and calculating slave trader.

Audrey Hepburn

"He's more brutal," she explains of her interpretation. "It's a very terrible thing he does, selling his daughter into sexual slavery for a fiver. I suppose my cheekiness is in saying: 'This is a very serious story about the usage of women at a particular time in our history. And it's still going on today.'?" She admits, "Yes, OK, it's a wonderful musical, but let's also look at what it's really saying about the world."

It's no surprise, then that Thompson doesn't much like the iconic 1964 Oscar-winning film directed by George Cukor.

"I find it chocolate-boxy, clunky and deeply theatrical," she begins. "I don't think that it's a film. It's this theater piece put onto film. It was Cecil Beaton's designs and Rex Harrison that gave it its extraordinary quality. I don't do Audrey Hepburn. I think that she's a guy thing. I'm sure she was this charming lady, but I didn't think she was a very good actress. It's high time that the extraordinary role of Eliza was reinterpreted, because it's a very fantastic part for a woman."

Carey Mulligan

That fantastic part is headed Carey Mulligan's way, according to Thompson, while all sorts of people are pitching for Higgins.

Can we expect more songs -- new songs -- in the revise?

"No, God almighty," Thompson snaps back. "It's so-o-o-o long. It's incredibly long. The audience can expect less songs!"

As Thompson began to dig deeper into what she thought would make her retooled "My Fair Lady" more relevant, she found herself psychologically drawn to George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," the play on which the musical is based, and "intrigued with Shaw's shrewd take on the ins and outs of human foibles. What Shaw did in 'Pygmalion' was say, 'Be careful what you wish for because this could happen.'

"His attitude was very much more clear-eyed and cynical about what Higgins was up to," Thompson stresses. "And it certainly was not something that could have led to a romantic entanglement. Shaw was a great champion of women, and yet there were also the problems that he shared with his fellow man at that time. Women were not considered to be the intellectual equal to men."

That said, "My Fair Lady" is a romance for romantics.

"So my job was to pull that into a not necessarily more modern but a more emotionally connectedly visceral piece so that Higgins and Eliza's relationship becomes absolutely central in a slightly different way," concludes the screenwriter. "My version exists in the real world."

The burning question: Will Thompson the screenwriter give Thompson the actress a role in the film?

"I have quietly nudged the housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, in my own direction," she offers, and then goes on to joke, "and if they do decide to cast me, I have a whole slew of new songs for her that I've written -- just to build her part up a bit. And, by the way, Higgins goes off with Mrs. Pearce in the end."

Very cheeky stuff indeed.

Source: Variety
-> My Fair Lady (2012)

Emma Thompson honoured with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie

Oscar-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson was the toast of Tinseltown on Friday, receiving the 2,416th star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame" -- outside an English-themed pub. Thompson, 51, was honoured at a ceremony in front of the Pig 'n' Whistle attended by fellow actors Hugh Laurie of "House" fame and Maggie Gyllenhaal, her co-star in "Nanny McPhee Returns," to be released later this month. "It's so appropriate this is outside of a pub," Thompson said as she received her award before a crowd of wellwishers on Hollywood Boulevard.

Laurie, who dated Thompson when the pair were at Cambridge University, said his friend's talent had been obvious even during their student days. "She was the most obnoxiously talented person -- and still is -- that I've ever come across," Laurie said. "Everything she did just oozed talent. She said talented things, she wore talented clothes, she rode a talented bicycle, she made talented spaghetti. She is a truly remarkable person, a very good friend, and I could not be prouder."

Gyllenhaal meanwhile gave a heartfelt tribute to Thompson's generosity. "I've never seen Emma when she hasn't given me a present and a present for my daughter," Gyllenhaal said. "She knows the name of every single person on the crew and their children and their wives' names."

Thompson, the only person to win Academy Awards for acting and writing following her Oscars for "Howards End" and "Sense and Sensibility," dedicated her star to her late father, the actor, writer and director Eric Thompson.

"He was a wonderful man and a great inspiration to me," Thompson said. "He inspired me to write for children without writing for children."

Thompson said she recalled her father taking her to visit the Walk of Fame during the 1970s while he was in Los Angeles to direct a stage production. "We looked at all the stars and I remember being really fascinated by this, thinking, 'What a lovely thing to do, put people's names in the pavement where everyone walks about all the time,'" Thompson said. "I was thrilled by that."

Source

An Education (2009)

It's 1961 and attractive, bright 16-year-old schoolgirl, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is poised on the brink of womanhood, dreaming of a rarefied, Gauloise-scented existence as she sings along to Juliette Greco in her Twickenham bedroom. Stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine, Jenny can't wait for adult life to begin.

Meanwhile, she's a diligent student, excelling in every subject except the Latin that her father is convinced will land her the place she dreams of at Oxford University. One rainy day, her suburban life is upended by the arrival of an unsuitable suitor, 30- ish David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David instantly unseats Jenny's stammering schoolboy admirer, Graham (Matthew Beard). To her frank amazement, he even manages to charm her conservative parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour), and effortlessly overcomes any instinctive objections to their daughter's older, Jewish suitor.

Very quickly, David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). David replaces Jenny's traditional education with his own version, picking her up from school in his Bristol roadster and whisking her off to art auctions and smoky clubs.

Under the pretext of an introduction to C.S. Lewis, David arranges to take Jenny on a weekend jaunt to Oxford with Danny and Helen. Later, using an ingenious mixture of flattery and fibbery, he persuades her parents to allow him to take their only daughter to Paris for her 17th birthday. David suggests that his "Aunt Helen" will once again act as a chaperone. Jack and Marjorie do not know that Jenny has chosen the date and place to lose her virginity.

Paris is all that Jenny imagined it would be, sex with David somewhat less so. On her return to Twickenham, Jenny's school friends are thrilled with her newfound sophistication but her headmistress (Emma Thompson) is scandalised and her English teacher Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) is deeply disappointed that her prize pupil seems determined to throw away her evident gifts and certain chance of higher education.

Just as the family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life.

Will David be the making of Jenny or her undoing?

[synopsis from tribute.ca]

Based on autobiography by Lynn Barber

IMDb

trailer below

(Definitely a Jane Austen connection with these characters: Carey and Rosamund played sisters in P&P, Emma Thompson and Dominic were in S&S (95 and 05), Olivia was in Miss Austen Regrets and Emma, Sally Hawkins (not shown here) was in Persuasion)

Peter Sarsgaard

Carey Mulligan

Peter with Dominic Cooper

Rosamund Pike

Emma Thompson

Olivia Williams

Parents: Cara Seymour and Alfred Molina

Trailer:

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010)

Emma Thompson returns as Nanny McPhee.

She "arrives to help a harried young mother (Gyllenhaal) who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war, though she uses her magic to teach the woman's children and their two spoiled cousins five new lessons." IMDb

Cast includes: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith, Rhys Ifans

View trailer:

The Thompson Family

Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law, both actors, are the parents of
Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson.

Emma is now married to Greg Wise who acted alongside her in Sense and Sensibility.

Shown here with their daughter Gaia.

Emma's first husband was Kenneth Branagh.
He's been in Much Ado About Nothing
and Henry V with Emma

Emma's sister Sophie is married to
Richard Lumsden who played
Robert Ferrars in Sense & Sensibility.

Sophie as
Mary Musgrove in Persuasion
with Amanda Root.

Phyllida and Sophie played Mrs. and Miss Bates
in Jane Austen's Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Phyllida acted with daughter Emma
in the following movies :

Much Ado About Nothing
Nanny McPhee
Peter's Friends
The Winter Guest

Phyllida played Mrs. Austen
in Miss Austen Regrets

See Emma Thompson's entry in Hall of Fame