Emma (1996 theatrical film) Jane Austen's most endearing character, the disastrously self-assured matchmaker Emma Woodhouse. A fine cast, speedy pacing and playful direction make this a solid contender for the Austen sweepstakes." Emma (1996 theatrical film) Emma is a 1996 period film based on the 1815 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Written and directed by Douglas McGrath, the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Jeremy Northam. The film describes a year in the life of Emma Woodhouse, a congenial but naïve young woman who thinks of herself as a romantic matchmaker in her small community in
Jane Austen Centre for a film company, from eye-witness accounts. As David Baldock said: “We were always asked what Jane Austen looked like and in a way the only reference point we had was Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra’s, very poor watercolour and we didn’t feel it did her justice.” The portrait was unveiled in December 2002. The process was taken a step further in 2011, when the Jane Austen Centre commissioned a three-dimensional, life-size wax figure. Based upon the 2002 portrait, the wax figure’s creation was undertaken by the portrait sculptor Mark Richards. During the three-year process it took to create the Jane