Mia Wasikowski is the New Jane Eyre?

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 20, 2009

I was looking forward to seeing Ellen Page as Jane Eyre, wondering how she would handle the role of the poor governess from the wrong side of the moors. The star of Juno might have been able to bring a new twist to a character that has been filmed at least nineteen times. Or could be a thousand. IMDb isn’t always accurate.  My favorite  Jane is Andrea Martin in the Second City TV “Jane Airhead”. Her work in the role stands alone.

As for serious Jane’s the role has been played by Charlotte Gainsborough, Joan Fontaine, Samantha Morton.  Anna Paquin played the young version of Jane to Morton’s grown up Jane. My apologies to the multitude of Janes unnamed but that would go on for too many paragraphs. So many Jane Eyres, so little time.

Now according to Variety, Mia Wasikowski, Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is in talks to step into the role of the plain Jane governess who finds true love with Mr. Rochester, that guy with the crazy first wife residing in the attic of his foreboding mansion Thornfield.  Michael Fassbender (300, Inglourious Basterds), is reported to be in talks to play the miserable brooding, yet of course handsome Mr. Rochester.

The word from is the original casting of  the Canadian Page as the very British Jane didn’t sit well among the British. I say that’s why it’s called acting. Actors play people unlike themselves, remember? But, I can understand their pain. Too many British favorites were being poached by actors in North America. Losing the colonies was a tough blow, but losing Bridget Jones and Beatrix Potter to Renee Zellweger, Jane Austin to Anne Hathaway was too too much.

Either way it didn’t matter since Page dropped out and the casting call has Mia Wasikowski on the Jane Eyre radar.

Sin nombre” director Cary Fukunaga will helm the newest incarnation of Charlotte Bronte’s tale of  brooding love among depressed miserable people with seriously messed up secrets. Alright, I’m being harsh, but do we need yet another Jane Eyre?

What do you think? Do we need yet another visit to Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester and his ward Adele?

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky