The world can’t get enough of Jane Austen adaptations, it seems, and yet another is coming later this year: Focus Features‘ Sense and Sensibility, led by Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones.
The studio released the official trailer for the film on Thursday, showing Edgar-Jones as the formidable Elinor Dashwood; Esmé Creed-Miles as her excitable sister, Marianne; and Bodhi Rae Breathnach as their youngest sibling, Margaret. Caitríona Balfe, of Outlander fame, plays their mother, Mrs. Dashwood.
Georgia Oakley’s movie, adapted by Diana Reid and in theaters from October, follows one of Austen’s most beloved stories. When Henry Dashwood dies, his wife and three daughters are left with an inheritance of just £500 a year. In a shock to them all, much of his estate is left to a son from his first marriage, John (Tom Brooke), whose wife Fanny (Stacy Martin) delights in immediately moving into their large house.
But this is a scandal-clad love story, of course, and Edgar-Jones’ Elinor soon finds she is of interest to Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), while Marianne juggles two different men: the roguish John Willoughby (Frank Dillane) and gentlemanly Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum). Fiona Shaw stars in a supporting role as Mrs. Jennings.
In the trailer, the young women are in despair over their sudden destitution. John, now the owner of Norland Park, is seemingly sympathetic, but their arrival also brings Fanny’s handsome brother, Edward, and sparks fly when he and Elinor first meet. Creed-Miles teases her sister over her taking a liking to Edward: “I esteem him!” Edgar-Jones says late at night from the safety of their bedroom.
Marianne says after whacking her sister with a pillow: “A man who loves me must burn with it, with all his passions, without the slightest restraint or hesitation.” Dillane’s Willoughby then appears, having come to Marianne’s rescue. Carriage rides and Regency-era balls ensue. MacKay’s character shyly tells Elinor: “I was wondering, Miss Dashwood, whether I might ask you…” before we cut to an emotional Edgar-Jones. “It is bewitching,” she says, “the idea of one’s happiness depending entirely on another person. It is not always possible.”
It is the first film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility since the 1995 version with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman — the very film that won Thompson her Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films produce alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett. The project follows Focus and Working Title collaborating on the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, another Austen classic novel, and the 2020 adaptation of Austen’s Emma.
Watch the official trailer for Sense and Sensibility below.
