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Jane Campion to adapt Munro’s “Runaway”

Academy Award-winning director Jane Campion is in Toronto for the 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, where her new movie, Bright Star, about a love affair between John Keats and the girl next door (not Elisha Cuthbert), is premiering. In addition to doing promos for Bright Star, Campion is apparently also scouting talent for her next film, an adaptation of Alice Munro’s short story “Runaway.”

Campion, who won a screenwriting Oscar as well as the Palme d’Or for her 1994 film The Piano, is a fan of Munro’s writing. She told the Canadian Press that Munro is a “genius,” someone who is “so unassuming, yet goes so deep.”

Although she was cagey about whom she might be talking to, she did admit that she has found some Canadian talent that interests her:

“I did meet somebody here,” she added.

“It’s a nice opportunity to meet a lot of actors who I’ve loved because they’re not having to audition – they’re just meetings and we talk about the story.”

This is not the first time that a Munro story has been brought to the screen. Homegrown filmmaker Sarah Polley adapted Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” for her acclaimed 2006 film Away from Her.

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