Deseret News has an interview with Shannon Hale about the process of watching her book “Austenland” be transforms into a film. Shannon is a long time friend of Stephenie Meyer and interviewed Stephenie for a segment in The Official Guide to the Twilight Saga. In this new interview, Shannon mentions how her relationship with Stephenie led into the filming of “Austenland.”
Hale remembers talking with friend and fellow author Stephenie Meyer a few years ago while she was involved with the filming of the first “Twilight” movie.
“I could hear it in her voice that she was really enjoying it (the process),” Hale said. So Hale suggested Meyer look into producing movies. Meyer responded that if she were to go into the business, “Austenland” would be the first movie she’d do.
Hale said they laughed about it, remarking at that time “of course it’ll never happen.”
But Hale just spent much of her summer in England.
“It was a crazy series of events as it always is for anything like this to happen,” Hale said.
Hale just happened to have a copy of her book with her one day, “and I never carry my books around with me,” she interjected, when she met up with Jerusha Hess, who’s co-written movies with her husband, Jared Hess of the “Napoleon Dynamite” fame.
Jerusha Hess emailed Hale shortly after reading the book and told her she wanted to make a movie out of it — this being her directorial debut. Meyer called Hale the very next day to tell her she wanted to produce “Austenland.”
With that serendipitous take off, the trio embarked on an adventure Hale lovingly referred to as “three chicks making a movie.”
The article goes on to describe what it was like for Shannon on set as well as her future plans. You can read the full story here.
Shannon’s next book “Midnight in Austenland” is a sequel to “Austenland” with a new main character and a darker feel to the story. As fans of Shannon’s and of Jane Austen, we are very excited for this film and for the new book. We will be interviewing Shannon very soon and are interested to know any questions you might have for her! If you have a great question for Shannon, leave us a comment and we might use it in our interview!
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