UPDATED 12/16/19 – in honor of Jane Austen’s birthday today, Focus Features has premiered the second trailer. Scroll down to view. There are some amusing lines. This new adaptation just gets better and better.
Janeites are all aflutter over the forthcoming release of the new Focus Features movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the misapplying matchmaker Miss Emma Woodhouse and Johnny Flynn as Mr. Knightley, her older, and wiser neighbor. This new feature film was shot entirely in England in period-accurate settings and costumes this past summer. It will premiere in the UK on February 14th and in the US on February 21st, 2020.
Emma, Jane Austen’s most highly acclaimed novel has been adapted for radio, stage, television, and feature films many times, most recently for television in 2009 starring Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller, and for the screen in 1996 starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam in the starring roles. While Austen’s most famous and most widely adapted novel Pride and Prejudice wins the popularity race with fans, critics and connoisseurs consider Emma her masterpiece. Some early readers complained it was about nothing. Over the centuries those opinions have changed. I find it subtle, sly and hysterical. Contemporary writer-director Amy Heckerling agreed and based her 1995 teen movie Clueless on it to much acclaim.
Directed by Autumn de Wilde, with a screenplay by Eleanor Catton based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel, we can see from the first trailer released today, that Emma 2020 will supply a visual and comedic treat. The advance publicity of this new film asks us to “Behold a new vision of Jane Austen’s beloved comedy about love and all of its surprises.” I am all anticipation. Here is a description from the production company publicity machine and the first trailer for your enjoyment.
DESCRIPTION
Jane Austen’s beloved comedy about finding your equal and earning your happy ending is reimagined in this delicious new film adaptation of Emma. Handsome, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse is a restless queen bee without rivals in her sleepy little town. In this glittering satire of social class and the pain of growing up, Emma must adventure through misguided matches and romantic missteps to find the love that has been there all along.
FIRST TRAILER
SECOND TRAILER
THE CAST & CREW
- Miss Emma Woodhouse Anya Taylor-Joy
- Mr. George Knightley Johnny Flynn
- Mr. Woodhouse Bill Nighy
- Miss Harriet Smith Mia Goth
- Miss Bates Miranda Hart
- Mr. Elton Josh O’Connor
- Mr. Frank Churchill Callum Turner
- Mr. Weston Rupert Graves
- Mrs. Weston Gemma Whelan
- Miss Jane Fairfax Amber Anderson
- Mrs. Elton Tanya Reynolds
- Mrs. John Knightley Chloe Pirrie
- Director Autumn de Wilde
- Screen Adaptor Eleanor Catton
- Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne
- Music Isobel Waller-Bridge
Anya Taylor-Joy as “Miss Emma Woodhouse and Johnny Flynn as Mr. Knightley in director Autumn de Wilde’s Emma, © Focus Features 2020
SUMMARY
I am very encouraged by the tone that the director and the screenwriter have taken to feature Austen’s Emma as the comedy of manners that the book so deftly delivers. Many period drama fans will recognize the famous British actors that have been cast to portray Jane Austen’s lively and humorous characters. Now, if the screenplay is as good as it looks, Jane Austen fans are in for a big treat.
Emma, by Eleanor Catton, based on Jane Austen’s novel
Focus Features, February 14, 2020
Images, movie description, and trailer courtesy of Focus Features © 2020; text Laurel Ann Nattress © 2019, Austenprose.com
Austenprose 
That is either going to be really good or absolutely terrible. I hope it’s good!
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I think that the deciding factor for Janeites will be the script. From the trailer, the production looks promising and the casting too. Fingers crossed.
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Yay! That look fabulous to me! Can’t wait!
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Me too Candy. I love that the trailer shows so much – the costumes, the locations, and the actors look great.
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I am so excited for this! I hope it’s good :)
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Fingers crossed Emmie. Whoever portrays Austen’s nonsensical girl has big shoes to fill. I have enjoyed Anya Taylor-Joy’s performances before, so here’s hoping that she can pull off Miss Emma Woodhouse.
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Good to hear! I haven’t seen anything with her in it yet.
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Oh yes, I’ll be all agog for this one. :)
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What is encouraging about the trailer is the humor. That is dominant in Austen’s original. I am pleased that the director and screenwriter recognized that. I hope it continues in the film.
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Fingers crossed it’ll be good and not a let down like the tv series Sanditon was. Thanks for the chance to see the trailer.
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It does look promising, doesn’t it? I am really psyched.
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I had no idea they made another version of Emma!! Thanks, can’t wait to see it!
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I believe that this Emma will be the 4 adaptation in the last 20 years. In retrospect, I liked the versions which played up the humor, so I am doubled excited about this new adaptation.
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On the one hand I’m looking forward to this but on the other hand I feel that we have enough good versions of Emma, and although the last one was 10 years ago, there are other books that could do with an adaptation more – a film length Persuasion, perhaps, or a version of Mansfield Park that is more true to the book. I will still watch it, though, and hope that they’ve done the book justice :)
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Hi Ceri, I think every new generation deserves their version of an Austen novel. Ten years is a long time and it is a compliment to Austen and her staying power. I would also like to see other adaptations of classics, so if this new Emma is popular, it will encourage movie producers to make more period drama. That is a good thing, right?
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What’s going on with Mr. Woodhouse, though? He looks very… spry.
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Hi Peony, I caught that too. Mr. Woodhouse does act rather sprightly in the trailer. It makes me wonder if the director and actor are going to give us a different interpretation of him.
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