Pride & Prejudice

April 1st
There's a very nice fanfiction and information site on P&P here, inspired by the movie rather than the BBC production.
Thanks Sandra

September 25th
Pride & Prejudice will premiere on Sky Movies in the UK on October 15th. Keira is on the cover of the October Sky magazine and there's an interview inside, but nothing new in the words or pics. The premiere will also be broadcast with the behind-the-scenes programme which you can still see on the P&P Promo Page, and also the option to watch the entire film with Audio Commentary, as per the DVD. See the TV Guide on the right for details.

September 5th
It's hard to believe it's already a year ago today since I was on the red carpet with Dame Keira Knightley at the London premiere of Pride & Prejudice. It seems like last week.

And it's still being nominated for awards. The European Film Academy (no, I'd never heard of it either) has shortlisted it for its People's Choice Award. Winners will be announced on December 2nd and you can vote here.

August 25th
I continue to be astounded by the creativity present on YouTube.com, as these two Pride & Prejudice videos show. The audio is from the two Focus Features trailers, but the video is from, well, elsewhere. Fantastic stuff, here and here.
Thanks Mags at AustenBlog

May 5th
The glorious P&P soundtrack has finally won an award, as composer Dario Marionelli picked up the Classical Brit Award for Best Soundtrack yesterday. The ceremony can be seen on ITV this Sunday from 4.45pm.

April 9th

This page has a number of P&P related files, including an apparent shooting script from 2004, when the film was recorded.
Thanks StarsButterflies

March 23rd

Costumes and props from Pride & Prejudice are on display at Basildon Park, in Berkshire, which was used as Netherfield in the movie. More.

P&P will be one of the first ever batch of movies to be made available for legal permanent download from Universal. Article.

March 15th

You must read Joe Wright's acceptance speech for his Empire Award, Best British Movie. This is the story he told to those of us at the P&P world premiere in London last September. Very funny.

March 13th

Pride & Prejudice won Best British Movie at the Empire Film Awards tonight, and Kelly Reilly won Best Newcomer for her role as Caroline Bingley. Keira was nominated for Best Actress but was beaten by Thandie Newton for Crash. Keira did not attend.

March 12th

Pride & Prejudice was the most searched for Oscar-nominated movie the day before the ceremony, statistics company HitWise reveals.

P&P has now opened in most countries and finished its run in the US. Its global tally is now over $107m, including $38.4m in the US.

March 2nd

Keira is nominated for Best Actress for Lizzie Bennet at the Empire Magazine Film Awards. The ceremony will be held on March 13th.

February 23rd

P&P is still playing in 35 countries and is yet to open in nine. Latest figure is $66.3m internationally.

There's a good article on the Oscars 'new blood' here. And even Sky News have a decent one too.

Tuesday's Variety had this to say in its critique of Best Actress Oscar nominees:
Though Keira Knightley is no less British, she is 51 years younger than Dench. Yet her youth, which can sometimes work against a performer vying for Oscar, seemed to play to her advantage here. The latest incarnation of "Pride & Prejudice" got solid reviews and Knightley was noted for her charm, which, in a year such as this where the actress field was lean, was more than enough to put her over the top. Her smile, it seemed, proved irresistible. "This is one of my favorite characters in English literature, and I couldn't bear it if I ruined it," Knightley says of Lizzie, who falls for Mr. Darcy.

February 19th

Of six nominations, Pride & Prejudice won one award tonight at the BAFTAs. Joe Wright won 'The Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British Director/Producer or Writer in their first feature film'. He paid tribute to Keira, gave a dig to BAFTA for not nominating her, and wished her well for the Oscars. 1.4Mb

February 17th

Focus Features celebrated P&P's breaking of its $100m worldwide box office with a very expensive double-page ad in Thursday's Variety.
Thanks AF

February 13th

Pride & Prejudice continues to open healthily around the world. ScreenInternational has some figures today:
Spain: $850,000 from 194 screens; $250,000 from 163 screens in Brazil; $155,000 from 73 screens in Mexico. It also climbed to $835,000 in its second week in Italy, playing on 160 screens.

February 12th

P&P has taken another estimated $157,000 at US cinemas this weekend, and is still playing at 219 screens, in its 14th week of release.

February 10th

There's a great new batch of articles in Variety about various aspects of P&P, including the score, costumes, the screenplay and the DVD release. I've posted them in full on the newsletter.

February 9th

Pride & Prejudice did well at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards on Wednesday, with Joe Wright finally winning an award, for Best British Director. The movie itself was Best British Film and Tom Hollander was voted Best Supporting Actor. Article.
Meanwhile, the ballot papers have now been sent to the Academy Awards voting committee. The deadline for casting and returning of votes is February 28th.

February 7th

Here's another Oscar-push ad for P&P from Focus Features, this time from today's Hollywood Reporter.
Thanks AF

February 6th

The Pride & Prejudice DVD is out now in the UK, and it's selling like hot cakes, at least if online stores are anything to go by. HMV, sendit.com and Amazon UK have it as their bestselling DVD at the moment.

Here is the first P&P Oscar ad for the attention of the final voting committee. It appeared in Variety among other movie journals today.
Thanks AF

February 5th

Here is E! Entertainment's 'Behind The Scenes' show from the set of Pride & Prejudice. Presented by Keira herself, it's brand new online.
Part One: 10Mb - Part Two: 10.5Mb - Part Three: 11Mb - Part Four: 7Mb

There's some lovely hi-res photos from the set of P&P at KKDaily.

Sunday night's box office estimates have P&P racking up another $217,000 in the US this weekend, for a new total of $37,766,000. Global box office now stands at $90.2m.

February 4th

Keira may be giving a live web chat with the LA Times on the 12th. More details if and when it's confirmed.
Thanks Ulrik

Here are some more caps from The Kiss in P&P. Not long to wait now before it can be viewed frame by frame, if you so desire :-)
Thanks Christina

Here's the two TV commercials for Monday's release of P&P DVD in the UK. I'd have thought they'd have mentioned the nominations, but still... 1Mb

In her column in today's Daily Mirror, Fiona Phillips has this to say about Keira's Lizzie Bennet. Fiona is the anchor of breakfast show GMTV in the UK, and interviewed Keira at the Savoy on the same morning I saw Keira myself, September 5th, the day of the P&P UK premiere. Interestingly, Fiona comments about Oscars being forthcoming right at the beginning of the interview (12Mb). What a psychic !

February 3rd

The North American release of the Pride & Prejudice DVD has been pulled forward from March 14th to February 28th. The UK DVD will be out on Monday.
Thanks Scott

February 2nd

The Times of London had an article today by P&P screenwriter Deborah Moggach, putting forward her case for Keira to win the Best Actress award.

February 1st

More Oscars reaction and news:
- To celebrate Keira's Academy Award nomination, KeiraWeb will be uploading ALL of the profiles of Keira currently on file, including a brand new 30-minute  'Extreme Close-Up' from E! which has not been seen online before. Files will be uploaded before the weekend, so check back regularly.
- Keira's nomination made the front page of today's edition of The Hollywood Reporter. Scans coming soon.
- The people cheering Keira's nomination at yesterday's announcement were reps of Focus Features, obviously as surprised as the rest of us!
- Keira was asleep when the nomination came through, she said today. Cheers from her mum and assistant woke her up, but not for long! Article.
- Working Title chairman Tim Bevan said he felt vindicated for Keira's nomination after BAFTA's snub. Article.
- The BBC, surprisingly, have come out with the inevitable Judi v. Keira comparison regarding their nominations.
- Keira is the third youngest Best Actress nominee, after Keisha Castle-Hughes (13 in 2003) and Isabelle Adjani (a younger 20 in 1975).

The BBC also have online their video interview with Keira from the Golden Globes nomination press call.
Thanks KKDaily

January 31st

Keira Knightley today silenced the critics by being awarded a Best Actress nomination at the 2006 Academy Awards. Her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice received almost universal acclaim and now the organisers of the biggest movie event of the year have recognized her too. While it's certain either Reese Witherspoon or Felicity Huffman will win the Oscar, just being nominated WILL open doors for Keira. If she wasn't in the 'big league' of movie stars before today (and few would say she wasn't), she most definitely will be now. Even if she never receives another accolade in her entire career, she will forever be 'Academy Award nominated actress Keira Knightley'.

There has been no public reaction so far from Keira, in quotes or TV interviews, but I'm sure they will appear fairly soon. Working Title Films have issued a press release about the film's nominations tonight. There were cheers from the assembled crowd at Academy headquarters in Los Angeles - but only at Keira's name - as its new president Sid Ganis read out the nominations - see the Announcement clip below. Credit must be given to Focus Features, distributor of Pride & Prejudice, who pulled out all the stops to push the movie under the Oscar committee's noses. The company leads the field of independent movie companies, with a total of 16 nominations (Brokeback Mountain and The Constant Gardener are also from the Focus stable).

Personally, as someone who believed in the talent of that young girl as 'one to watch' when I first saw her superb, natural and mesmerising performance in Coming Home, way back in 1998, this almost feels like a graduation day for me. That may sound sickly sweet, but I am so happy for her, and I would like to hope that she is aware of how proud and pleased her fans around the world are tonight.

Incidentally, should Keira defy the critics and win the Academy Award (and let's face it, she defied them today by being nominated), she will become the youngest ever recipient of the Best Actress Oscar. That record is currently held by Marlee Matlin, who won the award in 1986 aged 21.

Video Clips:
Announcement 800kb - Sky News reaction 800kb - BBC British angle 2Mb

Media Reports:
BBC - Reuters - Daily Mail - The Sun - Sky News

Nominations for Pride & Prejudice:
Best Actress - Keira Knightley
Original Score - Dario Marianelli
Art Direction - Sarah Greenwood (art direction); Katie Spencer (set decoration)
Costume Design - Jacqueline Durran

January 29th

Pride & Prejudice opened in Taiwan this weekend and will see its overseas box office top $50m. It is still playing in the US in its 12th week, although it's now down to less than 300 screens. Estimates are for another $300,000 this weekend, taking its US tally to $37.4m. The film is still to open in at least 25 countries in February, including Italy, Eastern Europe and South America.

January 17th

Thanks to the original source, the complete P&P Press Conference in Toronto from September is now back online. Click here, then click the Free button at the bottom of the page and wait until prompted to download.

January 15th

Another nomination for P&P has come from ACE, the American Cinema Editors, in their annual awards nominations. It's up against Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Walk The Line and Wedding Crashers in its Comedy or Musical category. Winners will be announced on February 19th.
The BAFTAs will be held on the same date, and their nominations will be announced this Wednesday 18th.

P&P has now topped $80m worldwide, $35.5m in the US and $45.5 internationally.

January 13th

Bit of confusion over this Variety P&P press book. Some eBay descriptions say it's 92 pages, others say 30+. Some say it was published in December, some say last week. I know some of you already own it/them, so please let me know for clarification what you have ! Thanks.

Today's Variety has a movie-by-movie guide to the Golden Globe nominees. For Pride & Prejudice it says:
Pride & Prejudice
How it got here: This is the first theatrical version of the classic Jane Austen novel since 1940. Filmed with a light touch by first-time feature helmer Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley alongside such vets as Judi Dench, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland, the movie gained surprising box office traction, generating more than $75 million worldwide. "They saw it in London, and I know quite a few who went to see it more than once or twice. They loved it. This is a real contender to win," says an HFPA source.
HFPA is the Hollywood Free Press Association, the organisers of the Globes.

January 12th

There's quite a few of those P&P promotional books I mentioned yesterday on the US eBay already (do a search for P&P Variety promo etc.) . It's a hefty 92 pages apparently with previously unseen pics, and quotes, reviews etc. With such a limited print run it's sure to become a Keira collectible.
Here's part of one of the large ads in the magazine featuring The Kiss.
Thanks Carolina, Gigi.

AOL Moviefone have a rather snazzy Golden Globes mini-site, with 143 pics from P&P.

January 11th

Sky News have good and bad on Keira today. They give her a special mention in their Golden Globes preview, although Keira's comments in the clip appear to refer to a premiere rather than the Globes as the interview seems to be from before the nominations were announced. 1Mb

The LA Times have a Golden Globes preview today with Keira in their Gallery.

Last week's printed edition of Daily Variety had a glossy pull-out supplement from Focus Features dedicated entirely to Keira and Pride & Prejudice, available in all of its 27,000 print run. This could go some way towards the Oscars committee's decision on the 31st, at least in terms of nominations.
Thanks Geoff

January 9th

E!'s Behind The Scenes episode from the set of Pride & Prejudice comes to E! UK on Saturday 21st at 8am.

January 8th

Final figures for UK box office receipts in 2005 put Pride & Prejudice at No.13, with £14,562,448. The UK bucked the trend of a global decline in attendances with a rise of 1%, more if Ireland's decline is taken out of the figures.

January 7th

The Broadcast Film Critics Awards (also known as the Critics Choice Awards), for which Keira has received a Best Actress nomination, will have its ceremony on Monday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It will be shown live on the WB channel in the US and also on E! at 7pm EST, midnight UK.

Keira has also received a Best Actress nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Awards, alongside Reese Witherspoon (the clear favourite among awards committees so far), Felicity Huffman, Joan Allen and Naomi Watts. Joe Wright has received a nom for Most Promising Director. Winners of those awards will also be announced on Monday.
Not surprisingly, 2005 has surpassed any other performance year for Keira award nominations. The full list can be seen on the Awards page.

January 6th

The cover and screen menus of the US P&P DVD can be seen here, but no mention of Deleted Scenes - perhaps they're saving them for a Christmas re-release. It does have the HBO First Look show, which you may already have seen on the KeiraWeb P&P promo page.

January 5th

Neither the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, Producers Guild or Writers Guild provided any nominations for Pride & Prejudice or its cast and crew today.

January 4th

A camcorder copy of The Kiss scene from P&P is now online. Picture quality is not fantastic but at least those outside of the US now know the dialogue of the scene. 3.2Mb
Thanks kreidy

Here is the UK cover for the Pride & Prejudice DVD. Hopefully it will be updated with some 'award-winner' text, or at least a sticker, by the time it comes out on February 6th.
Thanks Adam

January 3rd

The UK E! channel has an Extreme Close-Up on Keira in P&P and Domino on January 16th at 11.30am. They did one for King Arthur and was basically just a behind-the-scenes show with more interviews with Keira than anyone else. In the US, The Jacket premieres on Cinemax on January 28th to 30th. See TV Guide, left.

January 2nd

Pride & Prejudice has now withdrawn from more than half the US cinemas it was playing this time last week - 556 instead of 1141. However, it still packed them in this holiday period, with an average $4000 per cinema according to the latest figures. The per-theatre figure for Walk The Line is barely half that. The latest chart has P&P at No.9 taking another $1.15m for a US total of $32.7m. It opens in Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Malaysia this week.

January 1st

ScreenInternational has a look at Oscar contenders in the Best Actress category this week, with the following:
Leading the pack is the indomitable Judi Dench, giving an outstanding performance in Mrs Henderson Presents. But she is, ironically, competing with several actresses under the age of 30 - Reese Witherspoon, Claire Danes, Keira Knightley (who shared scenes with Dench in Pride & Prejudice), Zhang Ziyi and Q'Orianka Kilcher among them.

In its Top 10 shortlist it has:
Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice
Few would have thought the sexy star of King Arthur and Pirates Of The Caribbean could see awards talk this year, but that is exactly what the 20-year-old English actress is generating for her surprising performance as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice. Knightley brought contemporary vibrancy to the part but was never out of keeping with the period milieu or the Austen drama itself. If the film wins favour with voters as it has with audiences, recognition for Knightley could be part of the equation.

The newsletter has a more detailed look at SI's analysis of Pride & Prejudice's chances in other categories.