New Sense and Sensibility hits theatres Oct. 16 after Los Angeles premiere
A new screen version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility reaches theatres on Oct. 16, just over a week after its Los Angeles premiere on the evening of Oct. 7.
The film is directed by Georgia Oakley and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Edgar-Jones, 28 and Emmy-nominated, plays Elinor Dashwood. Creed-Miles plays her sister Marianne.
The story comes from Austen's 1811 debut novel. It follows three sisters who must leave their family estate with their widowed mother and find new lives, and loves, with far less money and security.
This is the second major film telling. Ang Lee's 1995 adaptation starred Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant. It won the Oscar for its screenplay, written by Thompson, and was nominated for best picture.
The shadow of that film hung over the Los Angeles premiere. But the new cast were quick to set it aside. Edgar-Jones told The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet that the intention was not to compete with the past film.
Several of her co-stars went further. Esmé Creed-Miles, Frank Dillane and George MacKay said they avoided watching Lee's version while making the new one. Caitríona Balfe, who also appears in the new film, told The Hollywood Reporter that Oakley had brought her own take and the film was not meant as a direct comparison.
MacKay stars alongside Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles, with Balfe and Fiona Shaw also in the ensemble, according to Focus Features. The studio is making the film with Working Title Films, the company behind a long run of British literary adaptations and romantic comedies.
Oakley is a BAFTA-nominated director. Edgar-Jones broke through in the 2020 series Normal People. For general viewers, that is the quick guide: a young British director, a widely watched young lead, and Austen's oldest published story.
What makes this stand out is timing. Thirty years separate Lee's Oscar winner from Oakley's version. For fans, this means a familiar plot with a different hand on the camera, arriving in theatres in mid-October.
