Emerald Fennell’s new take on Wuthering Heights is being fast-tracked, to ready it for 2025 awards season. More here.
Things seem to be moving pretty quickly with Emerald Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights, the filmmaker’s follow-up to Saltburn, her fizzy dramatic thriller that released late last year. Cameras haven’t yet rolled on Wuthering Heights and already the project has been the subject of plenty of attention. That’s partly because of the casting of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles, but more than anything, it’s the high-profile snub of Netflix that has really made waves.
Fennell and Robbie reportedly turned down an offer in the region of $150m from Netflix for the film, instead preferring to take it to Warner Bros where they knew their project would be given a major cinema release. According to The InSneider, we now have further evidence of that, with news that the film is being fast-tracked to a late 2025 release slot to place it right in the midst of next year’s awards contenders.
Cameras are set to roll in the spring of 2025, and things are going to have to maintain a pretty snappy momentum for the film to make that late 2025 release date. Given that post production on Saltburn looks to have taken Fennell significantly longer than the time window she’ll reportedly have on Wuthering Heights, we’d imagine that the production is being geared up in haste.
Read more: How to watch Saltburn with your nan (with timestamps)
Netflix was reportedly shocked at missing out on the project given that the company’s offer was worth around twice as much as that of its competitor. Along with Greta Gerwig’s reported demands at the company with regards to a theatrical release for her Narnia films, the incident has led to a feeling that perhaps Netflix isn’t quite as impervious as we all thought.
We’ve no idea as it stands what kind of adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel we’re looking at, period or updated, but should the film prove to be a blinding success, it will hopefully encourage other talented filmmakers to resist Netflix’s Scrooge McDuck-level hordes of cash and instead look to studios that are invested in protecting the theatrical experience. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
