EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker Charlie Matthau has acquired the Hillary Manton Lodge novel Jane of Austin: A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility which he’ll develop and produce as a TV series.
Jane of Austin is a reworking of Sense and Sensibility, but set in modern Austin, Texas. A search for a writer is also underway.
Jane of Austin follows sisters Jane (19) and Celia (28) who find themselves forced out of their San Francisco tea shop just a few years after their father’s business scandal shatters their lives. Celia insists they move to Austin, Texas with their kid sister Margot to start over again. But life in Austin isn’t all sweet tea and breakfast tacos. Their unusual living situation is challenging and unspoken words begin to fester between Jane and Celia. When Jane meets and falls for up-and-coming musician Sean Willis, the chasm grows deeper. While Sean seems to charm everyone in his path, one person is immune – retired Marine Captain Callum Beckett. Callum never meant to leave the military, but the twin losses of his father and his left leg have returned him to the place he least expected—Texas. The Woodward sisters must contend with new ingredients in unfamiliar kitchens, a dash of heartbreak, and the fragile hope that maybe home isn’t so far away.
“Jane of Austin is one of the most charming books I have read in ages,” Matthau tells Deadline, “The three sisters are very warm and engaging characters that one could spend years with, and the Austin, Texas backdrop makes for a unique and timely setting.”
The Waterbrook published novel hit store shelves in 2017. Lodge is the author of six novels, including Together at the Table, Reservations for Two, and the INSPY Award-nominated A Table by the Window.
Matthau’s directorial credits include such pics as the 2012 feature take of Elmore Leonard’s Freaky Deaky starring Christian Slater, Billy Burke and Crispin Glover as well as 1995’s The Grass Harp based on the Truman Capote novel in which Matthau directed his Oscar-winning father Walter Matthau, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. The Grass Harp won best English Language Film at the 1996 Palm Springs Film Festival. Matthau’s next feature directorial, Book of Leah, which stars Armond Assante as a Holocaust survivor, is planning a fall theatrical release. Matthau is repped by Ziffren Brittenham.
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