I use jquery.modal version 0.8.0.
Why I've made changes in readme is in the code section below.
$('#container').on($.modal.BEFORE_OPEN, function(event, modal) {
 // prints undefined
 console.log(modal.$elm); 
 // without dollar sign it works
 console.log(modal.elm);
 // blocker works with dollar sign 
 console.log(modal.$blocker);
});
Maybe it will be ok to skip this request prior to some twiks in code to unify properties name (i.e. make working modal.$elm and modal.$blocker (or modal.elm and modal.blocker)).