Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art ... Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever -- or else swoon to death. John Keats

Yes, we've finally got more news about the John Keats film, Bright Star, that has been brewing since 2006, and I'm happy to say that this isn't just some casting notice that might, or might not, come to fruition. Jane Campion's film about the famous poet has finally begun production in the UK, and has got two more cast members. Variety reports that Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox will be joining Ben Whishaw, who already signed on to play Keats, and Abbie Cornish, who is taking on the role of the poet's muse -- Fanny Brawne.

I loved Tom Tykwer's Perfurme: The Story of a Murderer, starring Ben Whishaw as a sociopathic serial killer. Whishaw's performance in that film -- in which he had very little dialog and had to convey almost everything through facial expression and body language -- was just outstanding. In poking around IMDb a bit while writing some Sundance reviews, I found out that Whishaw (most recently seen in Todd Hayne's I'm Not There) has three new projects lined up, and I'm excited about all of them.

First up is The Restraint of Beasts (currently in post-prod), an adaptation of Magnus Mills's first novel. The film is being directed by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, whose film My Summer of Love back in 2004 first brought Emily Blunt to notice.The darkly comedic story is about an unnamed supervisor (presumably Whishaw) working with two Scottish high-tensile fence builders in the countryside and "accidentally" killing people along the way by day and hitting the local pub at night. I have the book on reserve to read before the film comes out -- I like Mills's work but I've not read this one yet. If this film does well, perhaps it will be the beginning of a series of adaptations of Mills's books.

I've been a fan of Abbie Cornish for a couple years now, since I first saw her in Somersault, and have followed her career closely since then to see if she'd live up to the promise she showed in that film. I saw her last September at the Toronto International Film Festival in Candy, in which she played opposite Heath Ledger as a good middle-class girl turned heroin addict hooking for her next high, and was impressed with both her range of emotion and the chemistry she and Ledger had as the lovers tragically addicted to both heroin and each other.

Checking in with Cornish through IMDb, I was happy to see she has a slew of upcoming projects coming up with some impressive directors and co-stars. Like another of my fave young actresses, Ellen Page, Cornish is making some smart script choices and working with the right people -- plus she's just got the spunk and the talent to rise above the fray. Next up for Cornish is the just-completed The Golden Age, which reunites director Shekhar Kapur and Cate Blanchett, who once again plays Elizabeth I, this time in a storyline exploring her relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen -- yum!). Cornish takes on the role of Elizabeth Throckmorton, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I -- and wife of Sir Walter. Sounds delish.

You probably aren't familiar with him just yet, but Ben Whishaw is an actor worth taking note of. He was nominated recently for the BAFTA Rising Star award (Eva Green won it), mostly for his starring role in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which was one of my favorite films of last year. He's also been racking up roles in which he plays famous people (one day he could even catch up to Val Kilmer and Gary Oldman). Last year he was Keith Richards in Stoned, this year he can be seen as one of many Bob Dylans in I'm Not There and now he's in negotiations to portray the poet John Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star.

The period romance takes place in the early 19th century, focusing on Keats' romance with Fanny Brawne, who has already been cast with Australian actress Abbie Cornish (who is rumored to also be in talks for the next Bond film.) The couple's romance only lasted a couple years before Keats' health deteriorated due to his suffering from tuberculosis. He died a year after they separated, at the age of 25. As much as we could do without another tragic, tear-jerking romance film, with Campion behind the camera this could be one of the better ones. And in addition to further boosting the careers of both Whishaw and Cornish, it could, as many Campion films are good for, garner some acting nominations for the pair as well. Next up for Whishaw is a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Although Jane Campion's latest project seemed to have been forgotten, much like her career, it's finally making some headway. In May of last year, Martha Fischer posted that the director's latest project, Bright Star, would deal with John Keats and his relationship with Fanny Brawne, which stretched three years until his death at the age of 25. They had met when he had moved next door to the girl, and it is said that their relationship was not a big bowl of bright peaches. By the end, all that she could write in her diary was: "Mr. Keats has left Hampstead." (That is when he left for Italy in an attempt to get well, which, obviously, didn't happen.)

Finally, the casting is starting to come together for the film, and The Hollywood Reporter has released that Abbie Cornish, the star of last year's Candy with Heath Ledger, is in talks to take on the lead role as Ms. Brawne. If the talks are successful, this will bring the actress one step closer to a solid career as a professional love interest. She's got a thing for pulling hearts, with each of her most recent features dealing with romance -- Somersault, Candy and A Good Year. From there, she can take on the world! That's the way it works right? Most big-name celebrity actresses seem to start out that way -- Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock... Considering the rumors that Cornish might be the next Bond girl, it seems to be working already! Me, I'll just be happy to finally see another Campion movie, even if it will make me feel like I should have accomplished a lot more by the age of 25. On a side note: I wonder if they'll end the movie like Brawne ended the Keats relationship in her journal? That would be amusing.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jane Campion, of whom I accidentally lost track after The Piano, is not dead. (Ok sure, I know NOW that she for some reason makes a movie only every three years, but I really hadn't heard her name in like a decade until now.) In fact, she's at Cannes, showing people The Water Diary, a new short, and talking about her upcoming project, a film about John Keats entitled Bright Star. The movie, which has yet to be cast, will explore "the three-year romance between Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25 in 1821." Boy, that sounds depressing. Well, I guess it could be sad-but-funny ala Impromptu, though that doesn't really seem like Campion's style. The director is finishing up the screenplay now, and hopes to have it to her producers in London in just a few weeks; no production schedule is in place.

Interestingly, Campion turns out to be a bit of a Cannes darling -- don't get me wrong, she's no Pedro Almodovar, but she's had some success at the festival in the past, winning not one but two Palme D'Or awards. The first was awarded in 1982, for a short entitled Peel, and the latter came more than a decade later, when The Piano (at the hands of which I'm pretty sure I suffered permanent emotional scarring) took the prize.