Be sure to go and check out the official Bright Star website, now live! And read on for an article regarding the film, courtesy of Mail on Sunday. The article also comes with the very first production still of Abbie as Fanny. She looks absolutely radiant and stunning! I truly cannot wait to see Bright Star!

Jane Champion comes bounding down a gravel path and, suddenly, her body goes into karate mode.

She’s only kidding - one of the assistants on Bright Star, her film about the intense relationship between the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, the young woman he met in the last two years of his life, happens to be a martial arts champion and she’s just having a laugh with her.

All the same, it’s good to see this most passionate of directors having fun on a film that lingers on the subject of death (there’s romance as well, I hasten to add).

For me, it marked a marvellous contrast: going from the craziness of the Cannes Film Festival to contemplating Keats in the quiet of the English countryside.

Bright Star (the title of a Keats poem about Fanny) ends its nine-week shooting of principal photography today, and has brought together two of the most exciting up-and-coming stars working in cinema.

… Read the full story »

June 6, 2008 | Comment (1) | Posted by Riikka

Post Categories: 'Bright Star' | Public Events

Here is a little blurb from The Guardian about Bright Star and more importantly Abbie! There is a lot of high hopes for the film which is being helmed by Jane Campion who is the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or Cannes Award.

Great things are expected of Jane Campion (the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or), who is shooting Bright Star in the UK, the story of poet John Keats’s love affair with Fanny Brawne, starring Ben Whishaw and Australia’s Abbie Cornish. I heard a couple of executives discussing it after a trip to the set, where the word is that Ben is superb but that “everyone will be bowled over when they see Abbie’s Fanny.”

I personally can’t wait!

Here is the press release for Bright Star, courtesy of Pathé, who will release the film theatrically in the UK and France in 2009. Bright Star is being filmed in Hertfordshire, England, at the moment.

Pathé announces that principal photography has begun on Bright Star. Written and directed by Oscar® Winner Jane Campion (The Piano, In the Cut), Bright Star will star Abbie Cornish (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Candy, Somersault) as Fanny Brawne, the muse of the romantic English poet John Keats, who will be played by Ben Whishaw (Brideshead Revisited, I’m not There, Perfume). The film will also feature Paul Schneider (The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) as Keats’ best friend, Mr Brown, and Kerry Fox (Shallow Grave, Welcome to Sarajevo) as Fanny’s mother, Mrs Brawne. The Producers are Jan Chapman (The Piano, Lantana) and Caroline Hewitt (Mr Bean’s Holiday, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).

London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of high fashion.

This unlikely pair began at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only by his poetry but also by literature in general.

… Read the full story »

April 20, 2008 | Comments (0) | Posted by Riikka

Post Categories: 'Bright Star'

Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox have joined the cast of Jane Campion’s Bright Star, a period pic about English poet John Keats and his secret love affair with the girl next door.

Bright Star is an ill-fated romance toplining Ben Whishaw as Keats and Aussie thesp Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne, the poet’s muse. The passionate relationship was cut short when Keats died aged just 25.

Schneider will play Keats’ best friend, Charles Armitage Brown, and Fox will play Fanny’s mother.

Schneider recently turned heads in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Lars and the Real Girl. He was named as one of Variety’s 10 actors to watch in October 2007.

Fox has appeared in Shallow Grave and Welcome to Sarajevo.

Jan Chapman and Caroline Hewitt produce the pic, which is shooting on location in the UK.

… Read the full story »

I am very happy to announce that Jane Campion’s Bright Star has finally begun its UK shoot. As you may remember, Abbie was first announced for the role of Fanny Brawne over a year ago. Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Thomas Sangster and Kerry Fox co-star. If anyone has further details regarding the filming locations, please let us know!