Aline Brosh McKenna, the screenwriter behind “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “The Devil Wears Prada," has teamed up with BOOM! Studios for a modern reimagining of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel “Jane Eyre.” Titled “Jane,” the graphic novel will be McKenna’s first foray in the comic book industry. The project was initially announced in 2013 with a deal for a film adaption from Fox 2000.
According to Entertainment Weekly, McKenna’s adaptation will introduce Jane as a young girl living in a fishing village who wants nothing more than to move to New York City and attend art school. Her dreams come true faster than she could have imagined, though, and she takes a job as a nanny, tending to the needs of a young girl named Adele to make ends meet. While nannying for Adele, Jane becomes infatuated with the girl’s father, Rochester, a charming but mysterious man whose secrets could destroy his family -- and Jane in the process.
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McKenna will be joined by Eisner award-winning artist Ramon K. Perez, whose portfolio includes the likes of Marvel’s “All-New Hawkeye” and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” as well as BOOM! Studios' own “Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard.” In 2012, Perez won an Eisner award for Best Artist for his work on “Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand.”
“I am so excited for people to read our new take on this classic story,” McKenna shared. “Our Jane is a modern girl working through some very contemporary problems but she retains Jane Eyre’s signature moral goodness and clarity. We moved the story in exciting new directions while maintaining the mystery, romance, and yearning that has kept this story vital for years.”
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"'Jane' is an exciting experience since it allows us to bring our interpretation of the beloved classic 'Jane Eyre' to a whole new audience and will give longtime fans of the original Bronte sisters’ novel the opportunity to experience it visualized in an entirely new and innovative way,” said Perez.
“Jane Eyre: An Autobiography,” the source material from which McKenna and Perez will draw, was originally published in 1847 by Charlotte Bronte, who used the pen name Currer Bell at the time. The novel follows Jane through her childhood and meager education, up to the point where she becomes a governess (a live-in female servant who doubled as a nanny) and falls in love with her employer, Rochester. Jane’s infatuation with Rochester is incredibly problematic for her because of their gulf in status and station; Rochester is a rich landowner, while Jane is merely a servant. The novel explored themes of female empowerment and class inequality that were considered radical at the time.
McKenna and Perez's “Jane” will go on sale this fall.
