Reader, she's in talks to marry him. Mia Wasikowska, about to hit our screens as Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, is in talks to star with the ace Michael Fassbender in Jane Eyre, a new adaptation of the classic novel.

For those of you who slept through your literature classes, the novel by Charlotte Bronte tells the story of a young governess called Jane who goes to work for the surly and frightening Mr Rochester. Strange noises in the house and odd events seem to point to some sort of haunting or sinister goings-on, but it's only gradually that the truth becomes clear.

While we're going to have to wait for Alice to make any call on Wasikowska's suitability for Jane, we reckon that Fassbender's a good call for Rochester, with both the ability to be moody and terrifying that's called for and the charisma to make him nevertheless appealing. Rochester is, after all, one of the iconic (anti)heroes of that period of literature (on a direct line from Mr Darcy to Heathcliff), so you need an actor with a bit of gumption.

Sin Nombre's Cary Fukunaga is directing this version, based on a script by Moira Buffini. The book has been adapted many times before, but not since 1996 on the big screen (that was the Charlotte Gainsbourg / William Hurt version) and not since 2006 at all.