Cary Joji Fukunaga, the director of this year's brutal Spanish language drama Sin Nombre is close to signing on to Ruby Films' new Jane Eyre adaptation.
The script for the blood and thunder romance is by Moira Buffini, who has just adapted Posy Simmonds' comic strip Tamara Drew (itself based on Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd) for Stephen Frears to direct.
Charlotte Bronte's classic novel has been filmed many times before of course. Best of all was the 1944 version with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, but Franco Zeffirelli's 1994 version with Charlotte Gainsbourg is also worth a look. The Ruby Films' is a co-production with the BBC, who produced an award-winning TV adaptation as recently as 2007.
Fukunaga is a left-field choice for the material, but that should be A Good Thing if the familiar story of tyrannical aunts, Byronic heroes, imposing halls, head-pounding loves, covered-up histories and (spoiler!) madwomen in attics is to remain fresh.
No details on who'll play Jane yet. At one point Ellen Page was lined up, but has since moved on.
Shooting is due to start next year.