EXCLUSIVE: Georgia Oakley has signed on to direct a feature version of Sense And Sensibility starring Daisy Edgar-Jones for Working Title Films and Focus Features.
Production on the adaptation of the novel by Jane Austen begins next month in the UK.
The film is Oakley’s follow-up to her debut feature Blue Jean which premiered in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori in 2022, winning the People’s Choice award. It went on to win four British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) and a Bafta nomination for outstanding British debut.
The script is by Australian author Diana Reid, whose novels include Signs Of Damage, Seeing Other People and Love & Virtue.
Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett.
Sense And Sensibility follows two sisters, Elinor (Edgar-Jones) and Marianne Dashwood, as they tackle love, loss and financial uncertainty amid the societal expectations of 18th-century England.
The last notable Sense And Sensibility feature adaptation was Ang Lee’s 1995 feature starring Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, the latter of whom won an Oscar for writing the film’s screenplay. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, the feature grossed $135m worldwide and was nominated for six further Oscars.
Focus Features and Working Title previously collaborated on Joe Wright’s 2005 Austen adaptation Pride & Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, and Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 adaptation of Emma.
Edgar-Jones is a former Screen Star of Tomorrow (2020) whose credits include Normal People, Twisters and the War Of The Worlds series.
Netflix’s series adaptation of Austen’s Pride & Prejudice also begins production in the UK next month.