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'Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein to Finish Nora Ephron's Final Script

by Ethan Anderton
August 6, 2014
Source: The Wrap

It's been over two years since filmmaker Nora Ephron passed away. The director of films like Sleepless in Seattle and writer of When Harry Met Sally was one of the best known female filmmakers in the business. When Ephron left this world, she left behind in incomplete screenplay. As we reported in 2011, she was working on bringing a big screen adaptation of Lost in Austen, a British mini-series which is essentially a modern, time-traveling take on Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Now that film may see the light of day as The Wrap reports "Portlandia" co-creator Carrie Brownstein will now finish the script.

For those not familiar with the British series, here's the official synopsis:

Amanda Price is sick of the modern world. She yearns for the romance and elegance found in the books by her favorite author, Jane Austen. But she's about to get a rude awakening as one fateful evening, she is propelled into the scheming 19th century world of Pride and Prejudice while that book's Elizabeth Bennet is hurled into hers. As the book's familiar plot unfolds, Amanda triggers new romantic twists and turns within the Bennet family circle as she clumsily tries to help the sisters nab husbands and even captivates the tantalizing Mr. Darcy herself. But what about Elizabeth…and what will become of one of the world's greatest love stories?

The project being tackled by Columbia Pictures, Neal Street Productions (Sam Mendes' production company) and Good Universe will be the first feature film that Brownstein has taken on. Living up to the greatness of Ephron might seem like a daunting task, but Brownstein is a fantastic write with an Emmy nomination and Peabody Award counted amongsts her accolades. Teamed with Fred Armisen, she's responsible for some of the best comedy of the past five years on the IFC series "Portlandia," and it's not hard to see how her writing sensibilities would mesh well with what Ephron may have already written.

But now the question is who will step up to direct the film? Nancy Meyers seems like the perfect replacement, but that almost seems too easy. The last time I remember a higher profile project like this getting the same treatment was Steven Spielberg taking over A.I. Artificial Intelligence, an unfinished project from the late Stanley Kubrick. That turned out to feel like a compelling but somewhat odd mix of the two filmmakers' distinct styles, but it wasn't a disaster. If someone like Meyers came on board, it would feel like a seamless bridging of the two filmmakers work.

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