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 on

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!

Miss Abbie is featured in the March 2008 issue of the Australian edition of Harper’s Bazaar with Nicole Kidman on the front cover. There’s a huge editorial inside of her with beautiful photos and a nice article.

According to the article, Last Battle Dreamer has been delayed because of the strike (which is – thankfully – over now). Abbie’s next movie will be Bright Star, which will start filming in March.

I want to thank Lisa for taking the time to purchase and scan this magazine for us. Much appreciated!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Magazines: Harpers Bazaar (Australia) – March 2008

TeenHollywood chatted with Abbie about her roles in Elizabeth as well as past films and the upcoming Stop Loss and Bright Star in a recent interview which you can read below. Abbie talks about things from her favorite Bess costume, corsets, co-stars and more, definitely a great read for Abbie fans!

Seems that the first Queen Elizabeth had a lady-in-waiting named Bess Throckmorton who was younger, prettier and who was able to party with the royal courtiers while the frustrated Queen had to behave. In Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a sequel to 1998′s Elizabeth, the luminous Cate Blanchett is again the virgin queen but Bess is played by pretty young Aussie actress Abbie Cornish. Abbie came from a farm in New South Wales to model as a 13-year-old then co-star in an Aussie soap at age 15. She played a sex-addicted teen in the racy film Somersault and co-stared with Heath Ledger in Candy, a movie about a drug-addicted young couple. You can see her next year in Stop Loss, the film that started all those rumors about her and actor Ryan Phillippe.

… read on

He was one of the greatest poets of the English language, a difficult and dense writer of the Romantic period who might have rivaled Shakespeare had he lived past the tragically young age of 25.

And pretty soon he’s coming to a theater near you, enthused Abbie Cornish, who was flush with emotion talking about her upcoming film based on the life of poet John Keats, called Bright Star.

“I’ve read a fair bit of his poetry and, you know, the thing that strikes me is that for someone so young, he can just indulge in moments of great beauty,” she said, echoing the statements of everyone who’s ever read “Ode on a Grecian Urn” or “Ode to a Nightingale,” or any of Keats’ great works. “Things that are quite sensory, and emotive, and colorful, and textured, and romantic. You get affected in reading his words and kind of flush. They’re timeless.”

… read on