Emerald Fennell has cast her first film since Saltburn, as she takes on adaptation of Wuthering Heights. More here.
Despite being one of the greatest novels written in the English language (apart from The Da Vinci Code), it’s probably fair to say that we’ve never had a definitive screen version of Wuthering Heights. Sure, you might well have a favourite Heathcliff, whether that’s Timothy Dalton, Tom Hardy or otherwise, but given just how iconic the novel is, we’ve yet to see a version that fully does it justice.
Enter Emerald Fennell then. The director behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn is tackling Emily Brontë’s seminal gothic romance, or as the immortal British sitcom, Peep Show once called it, ‘not a love story but a clucking cluck story’.
Or words similar to that effect, anyway.
We’re pretty convinced that Fennell’s version will contain plenty of erm, clucking. After all, she’s a provocative filmmaker and Wuthering Heights contains lots of material that was considered boundary-pushing upon its publication in 1847.
Read more: Saltburn review | Emerald Fennell’s sophomore film is gloriously trashy and sexy
As for who’ll be looking all broody, sexy and provocative when the film shoots next year? Per Variety, Fennell has cast Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. While the two actors hail from Australia, the film is shooting in the UK next year so we’re expecting the weather-blasted Yorkshire moors setting to remain intact.
The huge star wattage of Robbie and Elordi will bring plenty of eyeballs to the project. Margot Robbie is probably the most in-demand actor in the world right now and Jacob Elordi saw his stock rocket following his turn in Saltburn last year. Of late, he’s been making Justin Kurzel’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein.
Recent years have seen adaptations (for both stage and screen) of Wuthering Heights lean more into different cultural backgrounds between Cathy and Heathcliff. With this casting, Fennell seems to be sidestepping that approach and heading directly for a film that will focus on class differences, unsurprising given that this is a theme that has featured heavily in her films so far. We can’t imagine a classically-dour take on the subject material though – that isn’t her way, so we’re still curious to see just how she plans to add her trademark style. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
Read more: How to watch Saltburn with your nan (with timestamps)
