My 10 Pride & Prejudice 10th Year Anniversary DVD/Blu-ray Wishlist

An open letter to the filmmakers of (my all-time favorite Jane Austen film adaptation of) Pride & Prejudice (2005)...

Dear Joe Wright, Working Title Films, Focus Features, and Universal Studios Entertainment, next year on September 16, 2015 (UK) and November 11, 2015 (U.S.), one of your universally loved and critically acclaimed films, Pride & Prejudice (2005) will be celebrating its 10 years Anniversary of its theatrical release. Is it too early now and too much to ask for a new P&P DVD/Blu-ray special anniversary edition (for all the devoted fans of this beautiful film worldwide) with some new, never-before-seen extras or special features? It's been 8 years (February 28, 2006) since the first DVD was released here in the U.S. I (and I'm sure a lot of fans of this movie) would love to see some deleted/extended scenes, outtakes, new cast interviews (celebrating their film's decade long anniversary), an screen-test audition videos of lead stars Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen reading the first proposal scene, and more!

Here's my 10 Wishlist for a new P&P 10th Year Anniversary DVD/Blu-ray Collector's Edition...
My 10 Pride & Prejudice 10th Year Anniversary DVD/Blu-ray Wishlist

1. Deleted or Extended Scenes - There were so many promotional and still photos (see collage below) from this movie that looked liked either deleted or extended scenes. There's gotta be some scenes deleted and extended shots/scenes (which director Joe Wright mentioned in one of his interviews when asked about deleted scenes) love to see deleted/extended footage and a few shots/clips from the trailer that didn't make it to this film. See a previous related post:Pride & Prejudice Deleted Scenes? And another old post: possible P&P 05: Deleted Scenes Photos.

2. Outtakes/Gag Reel - There's gotta to be some outtakes/gag reel from this movie. Every movie has one or more and it's one of my favorite extras featured on DVD releases of my favorite films and TV shows. I was disappointed this movie's DVD extras didn't include both this and deleted scenes (see #1 above). Also, I just saw recently (can't believe I've never seen nor noticed this before until now) in an E! Behind The Scenes special for P&P (KeiraWeb uploaded this in YouTube...though, unfortunately, in low quality with repetitions...) which Keira herself hosted with Interviews from Keira, Matthew, Rosamund Pike, Judi Dench, Brenda Blethyn, and Donald Sutherland. I saw a few quick clips from the BTS special that looked like random outtakes/gag reel, which I've never seen before (and here I thought I've seen it all) and I made a screen cap collage of them below. They were a couple clips of Rupert Friend/Mr. Wickham running around and joking behind the scenes/on set. The first one (at the very beginning at 57 seconds on) was him in Wickham costume running around and falling at the same time, haha...and one of the Bennet girls (I think it was either Jena Malone/Lydia or Carey Mulligan/Kitty?!) was laughing. The second random clip (around 6:08) was when Keira/Lizzie was doing a scene (Meryton scene), and Rupert/Wickham picked up something and walked away in front of her (that May or may not be an outtake, lol). Another one was at Rosings scene (around 10:38) where Joe Wright along with Keira and the cast and crew were laughing at something. And the last awesome random clip (around 18:17...and again, the video had a few repetitions, if you haven't already noticed and were confused by it...) was in the Rosings scene with Lizzie (playing the piano), Mr. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr. Collins, Charlotte Lucas, Anne de Bourgh, and Lady Catherine. Looks like Matthew/Darcy had an outtake in this scene as he was was about to walk towards Lizzie, he was doing this funny walk or something and they all laughed and Joe said "cut!" in the background and Matthew just waved it off, lol. I'd love to see more of it on a new DVD extras and in HD quality too!

Watch E!'s Pride & Prejudice - Behind The Scenes video (via KeiraWeb on YT):

And of course, there was this very funny Tom Hollander/Mr. Collins dancing behind the scenes moment...that was seen towards the end on one of the DVD extras. I'd love to see more of him doing silly stuff behind the scenes. 

 

3. New DVD/Blu-ray Commentary with Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen - I loved listening to director Joe Wright's DVD audio commentary. It was very interesting and informative. I'd love to see either an audio or video commentary of Keira & Matthew watching this movie, their movie 10 years later for the film's 10th anniversary...and commenting scene by scene as they're watching. I'd love to hear their thoughts and behind the scenes insights of this movie from their points of view.

4. Matthew Macfadyen screen-test/audition video for his Darcy role or his First Proposal scene reading with Keira Knightley- There's got to be a video(s) of this somewhere in the casting director's office or Joe Wright's secret P&P vault, lol...I'd love to see MM's audition video for his Darcy role. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Keira on reading with Matthew (his audition for his Darcy role):

"When I first heard that they were thinking about him, I went in to read with him and I virtually couldn't get my lines out, 'cause I just keep staring at him thinking, 'what the hell happened between you walking in as Matthew and you starting to read?' Because he actually did turn into Darcy." (Keira Knightley) 

5. New Pride & Prejudice Cast Interviews/Where Are They Now? Featurette
6. A video of Actors who auditioned for Darcy/Elizabeth roles
I'd love to see the other actors who auditioned for Darcy roles, Keira had mentioned in one of her interviews about those other actors including Matthew who auditioned for the role and read with her.

"We did a lot of auditions with different Darcys, and they were all fantastic, but there was that one thing or another that hadn’t quite clicked. With Matthew, the first time we read it, we really clicked. It wasn’t in the script or anything like that. It’s just what naturally happened when we were playing the scene in the room." (Keira Knightley) 

Working Title auditioned more than 100 twentysomething actors before casting Macfadyen. "They saw a bunch," he agrees. "Then I met Joe [Wright, the director]. And read. Then I was told it was all off. With me. I think they wanted names. And I thought, 'That's fine.' "Then it was on again. Because they had Keira. So I went and read with her. And screen-tested. And waited a long time!"

"The search for Darcy was a long one. We meet everyone, but there was never really any doubt that it would always be our first choice, Matthew Macfadyen." (Paul Webster, producer)

Also, I'd love to hear if there were other actresses who auditioned or rumored to have been considered for the Elizabeth Bennet role. I've heard of only Romola Garai (who co-starred with Keira in Atonement and played Emma in the 2009 BBC TV Mini-series) rumored for the EB part.
7. P&P Cast & Crew London/TIFF/NYC Premiere Red Carpet Moments

8. Keira Knightley at Golden Globe and Oscars Red Carpet Moments

9. More Behind The Scenes of Country Dance Rehearsals/Cast Rehearsals/Table Read with the cast - I saw a few glimpse of clips of some of the cast doing dance rehearsal. I made a screen cap collage (see image below). Hope to see more clips.

10. Re-release the 2005 film in theaters sometime in 2015 (September in the UK and November in the U.S.?) for a special 10th Year Anniversary limited engagement...or make a new P&P short film (Something similar to Disney's Tangled Ever After....to coincide with the 10 Years Anniversary of the 2005 film to be included on DVD/Blu-ray) starring Keira & Matthew reprising their Elizabeth & Darcy roles with Joe Wright directing it (or even better, Keira should do another Chanel ad short film in P&P theme with Matthew in it and Joe directing it again...I can dream right?).

Okay, #10 might be impossible or too much too ask, but just throwing out here any ideas and suggestions for a new featurette to possibly be added in a possible new P&P DVD/Blu-ray release in the near future. I would purchased another copy of P&P DVD/Blu-ray in an instant just for that and the deleted or outtakes, basically, any or all 10 from my wishlist in this post (a must for all P&P fans who loved this movie). Wouldn't you? Please, please, please JW, Working Title, Focus Features, and Universal (Home Video) Studios Entertainment make this happen! You may (or may not) read this, but perhaps if I or the fans can start an online petition (it worked wonders for the Save The Darcy Bust petition and Ripper Street series revived for Season 3!) for this, let's hope this will get your attention and there will be a special DVD/Blu-ray anniversary collector's edition in the works for this movie for the fans around the world to look forward to in the coming year to celebrate its 10th year anniversary.

Yours Truly,

Jeane

(aka Devoted P&P movie fan and long-time P&P Blogger)