Novelist Diana Reid took on Austen for her very first screenplay

Diana Reid had never written a screenplay when producer India Flint suggested Jane Austen.

Reid was known as a novelist. Flint asked her to consider adapting Sense and Sensibility. She said yes.

Reid then worked out a structure for how Austen's book could play on screen and pitched it to Working Title, the production company behind the project, which accepted it, as detailed by Variety in a profile published 19 October 2026.

That pitch became Reid's first screenplay credit, on director Georgia Oakley's 2026 adaptation of Jane Austen's 1811 novel. The film comes from Focus Features and Working Title Films, which announced in June 2025 that Oakley would direct with Daisy Edgar-Jones attached to star, according to Focus Features.

Edgar-Jones now stars with Esmé Creed-Miles, Variety reported. George MacKay appears alongside them, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane and Fiona Shaw also star, according to Focus Features.

An adaptation, in plain terms, means turning the novel into a shooting script: what is kept, what is cut, and how scenes are ordered. Reid told Variety she centred her version on the love story between the Dashwood sisters. The courtships are still there. The sister bond comes first.

Oakley has talked about the story in similar terms. She said the sisters learn from each other over the course of the film. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles have also championed that sisterhood in interviews around the film, Reuters reported in September 2026.

The new film follows a well-known earlier screen version. Emma Thompson wrote and starred in the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility.

What makes this stand out is the route to the screen. A novelist writing her first script. A producer's suggestion. A structure pitch that got a green light from an established production company.

That debut has drawn industry attention. Reid was recognised as one of Variety's 2026 Screenwriters to Watch in Santa Fe, N.M.