Jane Austen adaptations brew a tempest in a teapot

Coming this fall is a new version of one of Jane Austen's most popular novels-Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet and Dame Judy Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourgh. If you thought all JA fans would simply flock to this film with glee and giggles,you are so wrong,buddy. Like many fandoms,JA people do not always agree abour certain things-which book is the best,who should've married whom and which film/tv adaptation is the best or the worst.

Currently,I discovered a minor fracas stirring up at the ROP-a link to a blog objecting to the new P&P movie had a link to Pemberley calling it a "Communist regime of P.C. correctness"(am paraphrasing because the link was removed due to objections from the Pemberfolk). First off,I think that Communism and politcal correctness are polar opposites to each other and secondly,if you disagee with a group of people about a movie,calling them facists(which one of the blog founders did),does little to strengthen your position.

The whole debate is based on the trailer(which is playing before "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ' in some theaters) and as we all know,trailers are misleading and nine times out of ten,take scenes out of context and hype up whatever plot points the marketing execs think will sell the movie. All most people are saying is,wait until the movie is out(and some reviews are available)before prejudging it as terrible.

I've debated JA movies before on ROP and we get quite a heated discussion at times(I really hated the Patricia Rozema versions of Mansfield Park,which played up political themes that were not the focus of the book,blended Jane Austen's biography into the plot and rewrote the lead character because the director thought she was"boring"-afraid alot of JA fans find poor Fanny Price dull but to turn her into something she is and was not written as....grr,arggh!)but
the ROP does try to keep things civil which is what Jane would've wanted,IMO.

I've seen the trailer more than once and while it may not turn out to be as good as the A&E version(which I love,having it on VHS and two DVD editions),it might have some merit. The cast is mostly British,the sets look lovely and I saw quite a bit of the book in the scenes briefly shown to make it worth a look when it hits the theaters. The protest blog is called Save Austen's Pride & Prejudice Society-S.A.P.P.S . for short(their own initials,not a joke). They do have a link to the "blasphemous" trailer or you can clink the title link here and decide for yourself if this film will pollute the shades of Pemberley.