It's a Wonderful Afterlife! (8/18/09)

Attention, lovers of all things rad! The über-awesome Gurinder Chadha has a new film slated for production!

Attention, lovers of all things macabre! Said film is called It's a Wonderful Afterlife!

It seems as though that title would go with a movie about zombies, but the write-up over at IMDB indicates that it is, in fact, about serial killing. Deets are a bit fuzzy, as this sucker is pretty much still in utero. (Hat-tip to Filmi Girl!)

For the uninitiated, Gurinder Chadha is the genius behind Britty films Bend It Like Beckham and Bride & Prejudice, and if you haven't seen these, you should, because they are full of joy and fabulousness.

Gurinder Chadha...makes a mean aloo gobi?

First off, Beckham is one of my all-time faves—it scores points for hilarious family members, "strong, quirky female characters" (as my Netflix account would say), the Irish accent of one Jonathan Rhys Meyers (pre-Tudors), and up-and-up treatment of racial issues. Mostly, though, it just makes me laugh.



But to the point: Bride & Prejudice, a faux-Bollywood interpretation of the inimitable Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is wholly responsible for my chronic Anglophilia.

Allow me to explain, but bear in mind that what I'm about to say may shock you, so hold on to your bonnets:

I absolutely abhorred Pride and Prejudice the first time I read it.

Oh, yes, children, this is shocking indeed. But, alas, it is the truth. I was simply unable understand why all the characters spent their time sewing, hunting, dancing, and being, on the whole, entirely unproductive, save for burning copious quantities of oxygen with an endless flow of gossip and speculation.

But Bride & Prejudice showed me the light: P&P isn't about productivity, and it doesn't matter how Lizzie & Co. while away the days. This isn't Charles Dickens, after all. No, it's about the endearing (and loathsome) foibles of human character. And I am a big ol' sucker for the foibles of human character. (See: every book, movie, or TV show I ever write about.)



So Bride & Prejudice (best lyric: "I just want a man who gives some back/Who talks to me and not my rack") led me back to Pride and Prejudice, which led me to the 1995 BBC mini of the same, which led me to an infatuation with the BBC, and thereby all things British. And when my borderline-psychotic obsession could no longer contain itself, I started writing about it on the Internets, and that's where y'all come in.

Moral of story: Gurinder Chadha is awesome! And I can't wait to see what she makes of serial killers.