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.

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.

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.