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PRODUCTION UK

Campion begins Bright Star shoot

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Jane Campion, the writer/director of the Oscar-winning The Piano, has commenced shooting the John Keats biopic Bright Star across various UK locations. The film deals with the last three years of the poet’s life where he fell in love with his muse Fanny Brawne.

The film recounts how Keats, during an extraordinarily fecund creative phase that produced immortal works such as “Ode to a Nightingale” and “The Eve of St Agnes”, saw his next-door neighbour Brawne, and after some initial friction, fell hopelessly in love with her.

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The couple became engaged in 1819, but then calamity struck in the form of tuberculosis, which forced Keats to move to the warmer climes of Italy where he eventually died at the tender age of 25. His final poem was titled “To Fanny”.

The film’s title is derived from a love poem for Brawne which begins: “Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art” and ends with: “And so live ever - or else swoon to death.”

British actor Ben Whishaw (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) plays Keats, while Australian actress Abbie Cornish (Elizabeth: The Golden Age [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) plays Brawne.

Whishaw said, “I have never done a real love story before. Keats was an incredibly passionate man, capable of very intense love, so that will be a challenge. Before I auditioned for Jane I didn’t know very much about him, but I have been doing a lot of reading and I know that he was a beautiful human being and poet, it will be a privilege to play him.”

Production companies are Pathé Renn and BBC Films, with financing coming from the Australian Film Finance Corporation and the New South Wales Film & Television office. Pathé are handling UK distribution and international sales while RAI Cinema will distribute in Italy.

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