EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal that the BBC has joined Working Title’s new TV adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre, which will be led by The White Lotus and Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood.

As we revealed earlier this year, Emmy nominee Wood is attached to play the indomitable heroine in the buzzy adaptation, which is being produced by UK powerhouse Working Title and is penned by Miriam Battye, a WGA Award winner for her work on Succession.

We understand the BBC is now attached to develop the project and become its broadcaster-financier.

The coming-of-age romance novel explores the moral and emotional development of orphan Jane Eyre as she searches for love, independence and social equality in 19th century England. Wood feels like a great match for the project, which is widely considered to be ahead of its time because of the heroine’s individualistic and humorous character and how the novel approaches topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism. There will be other plumb roles, including that of Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.

The source material has inspired a number of film and TV adaptations over the decades but none for a little while. Ruth Wilson starred in the last major TV version in 2006, also for the BBC. Mia Wasikowska took on the role in Cary Fukanaga’s 2011 film (for BBC Films), and Charlotte Gainsbourg played Jane for Franco Zeffirelli in 1996. 2027 will mark the 180th anniversary of the novel’s first publication.

Sister Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was the subject of a recent big-screen adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Wood is riding high after her Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe noms for Season 3 of The White Lotus and is in post on the movie Anxious People with Angelina Jolie. She was recently cast as George Harrison’s photographer wife Pattie Boyd in Sam Mendes’ Beatles movies, which are filming this summer.

Battye recently wrote the script for feature Extra Geography, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. She is writer and exec producer on Apple and A24’s dramedy series The Husbands, starring Juno Temple.

Bridget Jones outfit Working Title has feature Sense and Sensibility starring Daisy Edgar-Jones coming out in September and recently teamed with Lena Dunham on Netflix series Too Much.

BBC and Working Title were not immediately available for comment.

Hamnet and 1917 producer Pippa Harris and The Zone of Interest producer James Wilson are set to participate in individual spotlight conversations at the 70th BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum in October. 

Harris, who co-founded Neal Street Productions with Sam Mendes, is currently filming The Beatles – A Four Film Cinematic Event, four separate theatrical biopic films about the British quartet starring Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson. Mendes is directing the project. 

Harris will join LFF for a deep dive into her pioneering work, including The Beatles films, as well as discussing the challenges of development and production and her relationship with filmmakers and talent across her career. Her credits include Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning films Hamnet and 1917, Oscar and BAFTA nominated Revolutionary Road, British box office hit The Magic Faraway Tree with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy and Jarhead. Harris is also behind a raft of hit TV productions including Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful, Britannia, The Hollow Crown and Stuart, A Life Backwards. 

Prominent indie producer Wilson, who has been in the business for more than thirty years, will join LFF to discuss his career and bold creative collaborations. He has worked with visionary indie filmmakers to great creative and commercial success on films including Oscar and BAFTA winning The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin, both from Jonathan Glazer, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth and Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. 

In the conversation, Wilson will touch on his key career moments from his years at Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4, where he was a production executive on films such as Sexy Beast and Dancer in the Dark through to the creation of his own company JW Films. 

“This year our industry programme puts a spotlight on producers and the vital role they play in shepherding artistic visions from their earliest stages through to the screen,” said BFI London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson. “I’m delighted that industry colleagues will have the opportunity to hear from Pippa Harris and James Wilson – two esteemed producers whose unique creative careers have given us some of the most memorable and critically acclaimed films of recent years.” 

The 70^th edition of the BFI London Film Festival takes place October 7-18, 2026. The Industry Forum Spotlight and Discussion events take place October 8-15. 

Two of the U.K.’s most successful producers will have individual Spotlight Conversations at the 70th BFI London Film Festival‘s Industry Forum this October.

Neal Street Productions co-founder Pippa Harris (The Beatles, Hamnet, 1917) and indie producer James Wilson (The Zone of Interest, The Voice of Hind Rajab) are set to discuss their careers, current projects and navigating the international film and TV market in a rapidly changing landscape.

The LFF Industry Forum welcomes industry delegates from all over the world for a program of “thought-provoking conversations with some of the most exciting practitioners working in the screen industries and networking events with professionals from all over the world.” The full lineup will be announced in mid-September.

Harris will take a deep dive into her work on the hugely ambitious and much-anticipated quartet The Beatles films, directed by her Neal Street co-founder Sam Mendes, and discuss the challenges of development, production and her relationship with talent across her career. A prolific British film producer, her credits include the Oscar, Golden Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning Hamnet and 1917, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Revolutionary Road, as well as Jarhead and The Magic Faraway Tree, Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful and more.

Wilson is one of the U.K.’s most successful independent producers. He has worked for three decades in the business — for Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4 before heading up his own company in the 2000s — and will speak during his Spotlight Conversation about the bold creative collaborations that have shaped his career so far. He has worked on the Oscar and BAFTA-winning The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin from Jonathan Glazer, as well as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab and Aneil Karaia’s Hamlet.

“This year our industry programme puts a spotlight on producers and the vital role they play in shepherding artistic visions from their earliest stages through to the screen,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director. “I’m delighted that industry colleagues will have the opportunity to hear from Pippa Harris and James Wilson — two esteemed producers whose unique creative careers have given us some of the most memorable and critically acclaimed films of recent years.”

Attendance of international industry professional delegates to the LFF has doubled over the last five years. The 70th BFI London Film Festival, running Oct. 7-18, is set to open with Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman’s Elsinore, and close with Jesse Eisenberg’s musical-comedy The Debut.