Sony Pictures Classic Picks Up 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life'

It’s tough sometimes for the TV and film industry when one of the world’s most famous British women authors only wrote six books. Jane Austen is so beloved by the British public and readers around the globe that her face is literally on the £10 note. But there are only so many movie or TV adaptations one can make and many years to wait between versions to be considered a “generational masterpiece.” Thankfully, fans of Austen tend to be on the creative side, which is how viewers end up with an entire subgenre of “About Austen” films, in which her writing, or the writer herself, is the star.

For example, there may not be a new season of Sanditon for quite a while, but Masterpiece will debut Miss Austen, based on the novel of the same name and focused on Jane’s sister. Likewise, after 2020’s Emma with Anya Taylor-Joy, there probably won’t be a new one for several years. However, Sony Pictures Classic has picked up the French romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a Gâché ma Vie), which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2024.

The story, which is an original idea from the mind of writer-director Laura Piani, will be familiar to just about anyone who’s ever loved Jane Austen. It’s about a clumsy single Parisian woman who spends her life in a bookshop, afraid of opening her heart in real life, preferring to dream of finding her Mr Darcy. But when the opportunity arises to attend the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England, and she takes the plunge, the man she meets might turn out to be more of a George Wickham than she bargained for.