Filmmakers are moving on from Jane Austen to the more romantic and emotionally explicit novels of the Bronte sisters.

The likely reason? People can relate to the stories’ extreme situations during times of strife such as today’s painful economic recession. Story here.

Key passages:

Filmmakers’ long affair with the divine Miss Austen is finally waning, after two decades of movies made from her elegant novels with their well-mannered characters, placid plots and witty repartee.

But enough with the endless circling of the Pump Room at Bath — time to get hearts racing! Time to bring back those wildly Romantic Brontë characters — plain Jane Eyre and moody Mr. Rochester, doomed Cathy Earnshaw and vengeful Heathcliff — to rend their garments, wail disconsolately and stagger across windswept moors. . . .

British filmmakers are at work on new versions of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brontë, to be released next year. . . .

“The Brontës have proved to be more adaptable to film than virtually any other writers,” says Andrew McCarthy, director of the museum. “They seem to come to the fore in times of difficulty, while Jane Austen adaptations seem to thrive during periods of economic calm. There’s a harsher feel to the Brontës. They are books that contain difficult, extreme emotions — and (maybe) they feel more appropriate in times of economic strife.”