Anya Taylor-Joy to Star in Jane Austen Adaptation ‘Emma’ (Exclusive)

Anya Taylor-Joy, the star of Split and The Witch, has been cast in the title role for Emma, Working Title’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.

Music video director Autumn de Wilde is making her feature directorial debut on the feature, which has a script by Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton. 

Austen’s novel, published in 1815, was a comedy of manners and told of a young woman, Emma Woodhouse, who, despite the best intentions, heedlessly meddles in people’s romantic affairs as she tries to play matchmaker.

(It was also revealed Thursday that Clueless, the 1995 film based on the Austen classic, will be getting a remake from the writers of GLOW and Girls Trip.)

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title, whose recent output includes The Darkest Hour and Baby Driver, as well as Graham Broadbent (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) are producing.

De Wilde is a photographer and music video and commercial director who has worked with Rilo Kiley, Beck and Death Cab for Cutie.

Catton won the Man Booker Prize in 2013 for The Luminaries, becoming the youngest author to win the esteemed literary prize.

Taylor-Joy broke through with the creepy Witch and went head-to-head with James McAvoy in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. She is reprising her Split role in Glass, Shyamalan’s highly anticipated follow-up that acts as a sequel to both Split and Unbreakable.

Taylor-Joy recently joined the voice cast of Playmobil: The Movie and will star in season five of Brit crime show Peaky Blinders. She also wrapped shooting Radioactive, a biopic of Marie Curie.

Taylor-Joy is repped by CAA, Troika in the U.K. and law firm Felker Toczek.

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