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"Emma" Goes Hip-Hop with Inspiration from Lil Mama

Mash ups are all the rage these days, and a piece of classic British literature featuring aristocratic ladies and gents in hot pursuit of love certainly isn't safe from this modern day artistic convention. Screen Gems is planning to re-envision Jane Austen's Emma as a hip- hop musical.

The novel, about a young British matchmaker who is too busy setting up her friends to worry about her own love life, has seen several big screen incarnations, the most recent being 1997's version starring that wannabe Brit Gwyneth Paltrow. And who can forget 1995's modern day update, Clueless?

SG's version may be renamed Emme, and will be set in contemporary times at an urban high school, and will feature a stepbrother and stepsister at the center of the plot. The idea to give Emma the hip-hop treatment came after an SG exec watched the video for Lil Mama's smash hit, "Lip Gloss." We think (and hope) Miss Jane Austen would be proud.

—The ARTISTDirect Staff
04.09.08