Alert Janeite Cinthia sent us a link to an interview with Fina Torres, the director of Sense and Sensibilidad, a modern-set film adaptation of S&S set in the chicano community of Los Angeles. Ms. Torres said the film might start filming by January 2009. The article is in Spanish, but Cinthia sent us a translation.

Title: “Sense and Sensibility chicana”

Subtitle: “This is a free adaptation of the novel to contemporary chicano L.A. world.”

Abstract: “The Mexican Adriana Barraza heads the cast of the new film that the Venezuelan Fina Torres (Oriana, Women on Top) will next shoot. Thus she [Torres] informed through e-mail from USA where she is setting up details to start shooting a version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Though there will be a Venezuelan actor, the filmaker did not reveal his name.”

Interview:

“- When will you start shooting?

– Aproximately by January, 2009. Though dates are always tentative.

– When it will take place?

– In México and L.A.

– Who are part of the cast?

– Adriana Barraza, a Venezuelan actor, two Mexicans and the rest among Americans and chicanos.

– Who wrote the adapted script?

– I did, with Luis Alfaro, an excellent chicano playwright. It was an interesting process.

– What differences it wil have with the Hollywood version (Ang Lee, 1995)?

Several. It is a free adaptation of the novel to contemporary chicano LA world. The characters are chicanos, Mexicans, Latinos and an American couple.

– Regarding Hollywood, this will be your second production there, what does it means for you this new opportunity?

– Every film is a new opportunity, wherever it takes place. I love shooting in different countries. This will be a chance to do so in Mexico and East L.A., which is like a bit of Mexico in USA.

– What do you intend to do and improve in this production in relation to Women on Top (2000)?

They are different productions. This is an independent film, there is no big studio behind it. Women on Top was a commission where served as director to a production studio with a screenwript chosen by them. It was a very interesting experience, but I do not consider it a personal work. This [S&S L.A.] is cinema d’autor, but of course with the limitations of the American industry, where producers have a lot of control.”

Then she only answers briefly about the release of her latest film (Te en La Habana) and opinions of cinema in Venezuela.

Cinthia also speculates that the American couple might be John and Fanny Dashwood.

Well! Just when one thinks she can take a breath and get back to reading old biographies of Jane Austen, here comes another film. Alert Janeite Cinthia (one of the managers of JACastellano, the Spanish-language Jane Austen discussion list) sent us an article from the Mexican newspaper Reforma that states Diana Garcia has been cast as Mary (Marianne) and Daniella Alonso as Nora (Elinor) for the upcoming film Sense and Sensibilidad. Cinthia is working on translating the entire article for us. The article also states filming begins in August.

For those unfamiliar with this project, it is a modern-set English language version of Sense and Sensibility, set in the Latino community of Los Angeles.

ETA: Making a few tweaks since we posted this in a hurry on our lunch break.

ETA 2 and bumped: to add the translation of the article, courtesy of Cinthia, after the break. Continue reading

Alert Janeite Carmen found an article about Fina Torres, the director who is hoping to bring Sense and Sensibilidad to the screen. The article is in Spanish, but Carmen provided a rough translation of the pertinent parts.

“Un té en La Habana” and “Sense and Sensibilidad” are the titles of Torres for realising for the end of the year and 2008.

“‘Sense and Sensibilidad’ is the chicana version of Jane Austen’s novel, which will be filmed with locations in México and deep México from the East Los Angeles”, a zone that the director knows very well due to her seven years of living in the big city of California.

The director and mexican writer Luis Alfaro are finishing the script and they are waiting for the opening in 2008 in USA, where the film projects for the latin market are in fashion for independent producers and big Hollywood productions. < >

She says: ”I have a strange relation with my films, they born from something purely emocional, it’s not about thoughtful projects, calculated, they are more deep, you make it, you direct it, you show it and and then you have to release”. “I suppose it’s a relation which seems to be like a son/daughter relation”

It’s hard to tell if the 2008 filming is definite, but we hope it is, because the project sounds fascinating.

Alert Janeite Lisa let us know that Odd Lot International, the production company developing Sense and Sensibilidad, will be marketing the script at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens today. Here’s hoping they find a studio willing to take it on.

Alert Janeite Lisa found a page for the film Sense and Sensibilidad at the producer’s Web site with a synopsis of the plot.

Sense & Sensibilidad is a latina version of Jane Austen′s classic novel set in modern-day Los Angeles. It is the tale of two sisters: Mary, a young beauty who chooses passion over logic and Nora, a law student whose fixed moral compass keeps her from following her desires. They are uprooted, along with their mother, from their luxurious lifestyle in San Marino when their father suddenly passes away. Out of money and out of options, the women move into their great aunt Aurelia′s modest, but lively home in the Latino-centric Boyle Heights neighborhood. The women find themselves thrown into a world that, despite their heritage, seems completely foreign. However, over time, they uncover the joy, laughter and beauty of the culture they once fought so desperately to hide. In the process they find the one thing that eluded them: love.

Hey, wait a minute! Where’s the burgeoning sexual and romantic discovery? We thought S&S was about burgeoning sexual and romantic discovery. The BBC says so, so it must be true.

Note the cast is TBA. Can we get some love for the gorgeous and talented America Ferrera as Nora? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase? There’s a nest of Ugly Betty fans here at AustenBlog/Molland’s ready to represent for our girl!

A while back we posted about SENSIBILIDAD, a film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility set in the Latino community of modern-day Los Angeles. It was only in the script-writing phase then, but it looks like the film will be made and will be called SENSE AND SENSIBILIDAD (an excellent choice, may we add).

Fina Torres is set to direct a contemporary, Latino version of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” to be called “Sense and Senibilidad” for Camelot Pictures and Odd Lot Entertainment. Torries will direct the project, set in Los Angeles, from a script she wrote with Luis Alfaro (“Electricidad”).

We look forward to more news from this production!

Luis Alfaro, the screenwriter of the upcoming modern-set adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, found AustenBlog and answered a few questions about the film for us.

We were approached about a year ago by a great company that did a lovely film called Garden State to do a contemporary adaptation of this great Austen work. We read and re-read the novel so many times. We have seen all of the adaptations of her work, both here in the U.S. and internationally. This is an English language feature film that begins filming in November in Los Angeles. We love the title Sensibilidad because the story has a Mexican-American slant, but I am sure something more commercial will be attached once the film is done. It is very much a contemporary romantic comedy and we hope we do justice to Austen.

Thanks for posting, Luis, and best of luck with the film! We’ll look forward to it. (And we love the title SENSIBILIDAD!)

Alert Janeite Cinthia found some more information on SENSIBILIDAD. The article is in Spanish and available only on Google cache, but she kindly provided a translation.

– What are you doing now as a film director?

– I am finishing a very entertaining film in Mexico, it is called “Esperanza” [it means “Hope”], which was filmed last October. In September or October this year I start filming another in the United States.

– What is this film project about?

– I am filming a version of the novel Sense and Sensibility, set for the contemporary “chicana” [Latin] community. It is an adaptation of the work by Jane Austen, the 19th Century English writer. But it will not be a period adaptation.

– What are you going to do with it?

– Ang Lee has already shot a period film with Emma Thompson. I am setting the story, from a special adaptation, in the contemporary chicano world in Los Angeles, with much emphasis on the Latino. I think it will turn out to be very interesting.

– Is it the same project on which you are working with the Cuban scriptwriter Julio Carrillo?

– No, in this work I am having the help of wonderful Cuban writer Luis Alfaro.

This just confirms what we already knew, and adds a tiny bit more information. Well, it’s not really S&S4; shall we choose the Official Janeite Nickname? We nominate S&S L.A.