True story: I haven’t read Wuthering Heights since high school. It never captured my imagination like Jane Eyre, which I’ve reread several times in adulthood (and I still love). I acknowledge that Heathcliff and Cathy are iconic and that many people have strong feelings about any and all adaptations of the material. It feels like Jane Eyre is the easier book to adapt, and as such, there have been so many film and TV adaptations. Well, Emerald Fennell is going to change that. She’s adapting Wuthering Heights for the screen after the surprise (?) success of Saltburn. Fennell’s films have been consistently produced by Margot Robbie’s Lucky Chap, and I guess Emerald wants Wuthering Heights to be Margot’s postpartum comeback role. And Emerald wants Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff? Oh no.
In what is gearing up to be an A-list pairing for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights movie, MRC is tapping Oscar-nominated actress and producer Margot Robbie and BAFTA-nominated actor Jacob Elordi to star in the adaptation of the classic novel.
LuckyChap also will produce Fennell’s upcoming feature film adaptation based on the iconic romance novel by Emily Brontë. Besides being the studio on the project, MRC also will finance the pic.
This marks LuckyChap and Fennell’s third collaboration together, having also produced her most recent pic Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, which won Fennell an Oscar for original screenplay.
Robbie is set to star as Catherine Earnshaw, and Elordi will play Heathcliff. Fennell is set to write, direct and produce. The film is in pre-production gearing up for a UK shoot in 2025.
Because I don’t have super-strong feelings about the material, I don’t really care that Emerald is going to put her stink on a classic novel. But even an ambivalent B like me is side-eyeing these casting choices. Elordi as Heathcliff? REALLY? Margot might do an okay job as the grown-up Cathy, but it feels like Fennell is being super-chaotic. I bet the script will be painful too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Margot Robbie attending the Babylon UK Premiere at BFI Southbank in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 749315452, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Italy, Lido di Venezia, September 4, 2023: Jacob Elordi attends the red carpet for the movie ‘Priscilla’ at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2023 in Venice, Italy.,Image: 802965407, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: **** World right excluding Italy ****, Model Release: no, Credit line: Ottavia Da Re / Agenzia Sintesi / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 14: Australian actor Jacob Elordi wearing Givenchy arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘Saltburn’ held at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on November 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 822169242, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jacob Elordi, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 14: Australian actor Jacob Elordi wearing Givenchy arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘Saltburn’ held at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on November 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 822169408, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jacob Elordi, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 14: Australian actor Jacob Elordi wearing Givenchy arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Amazon MGM Studios’ ‘Saltburn’ held at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on November 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 822169464, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Jacob Elordi, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 24: Margot Robbie wearing Schiaparelli FW20 Couture arrives at the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 850579365, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Margot Robbie, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- HOLLYWOOD, CA – FEBRUARY 25:Margot Robbie at the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom on February 25, 2024 in Hollywood, California. Copyright: xJeffreyxMayerx,Image: 850902926, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- Margot Robbie at The 96th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855701694, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: SI / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 13: Margot Robbie wearing Rick Owens SS24 RTW and Jennifer Meyer jewels arrives at the 10th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 864760305, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Margot Robbie, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
I don’t see any reason not to give Emerald Fennell the benefit of the doubt until we actually see this. She knows very well what both of those actors are capable of, and Saltburn and Promising Young Woman were both amazing.
I like both of those movies but I must admit I have issues with this casting, especially the casting of Jacob Elordi because Heathcliff is clearly not white in the book!! I re-read it earlier this year and it repeatedly stated how dark Heathcliff is and that is just one of the reasons why he is othered and abused in the family that takes him in. In short, Heathcliff should be played by a man of colour. So this casting makes me think that maybe Fennell is not as familiar with the novel as she ought to be if she is to adapt it.
Agree completely, Arthistorian – Heathcliff is not white. Also, dear whoever wrote the article in Deadline, it’s not a romance novel.
Totally agree. Jacob Anderson ( from Interview With The Vampire) would be my choice to play Heathcliff.
Heathcliff is described as a Gypsy and Lascar in the novel, both of which referred to people from India at the time.
The classic clearly states he is gypsy – like in appearance so my wish would have been more Latina, etc….. if anything.
I really loved Wuthering Heights as a kid. I actually like Margot for the role, but I’d cast Dev Patel as Heathcliff. I think he could pull off the anger/pain of the role.
Yeah, this very much. His being not-white is like….kinda the whole thing. An Indian actor would have been a better choice IMO
Yes to Jacob Anderson! Iwtv, that’s my show 💕
My dream casting is Dev Patel and Morfydd Clark. I think Robbie and Elordi are both wrong.
The internet says he’s from the Basque region of northern Spain and immigrated to Australia in 3rd grade. So… he’s kind of not white?
@the person that said he’s not white because he’s Spanish … Spanish people are white.
There was a recent WH version in which Heathcliff was a POC…Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) directed it. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181614/
This is a film adaptation no one is asking for and Saltburn was laughably bad.
agree, no one asked for this. and agree with above that Heathcliff is probably biracial or not white and a current production should be acknowledging that.
Emerald Fennell said Saltburn was her take on “Brideshead Revisited” mixed with “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, and her people & UK peeps/critics praised it to the nine. In reality, it’s just a OK movie that failed to live up its hype. It was such a let down after I saw it. It did not compare to “Brideshead Revisited” (both TV series versions) & “The Talented Mr. Ripley” in artistic & scripts. A movie with quite a bit of s3xual contents did not automatically make a film a good film. So now I reserve my expectation on Emerald Fennell’s projects, and I think the casting of the Elordi & Robbie is not ideal.
I didn’t find Saltburn laughably bad, but neither did I think it was great enough to deserve the accolades it received. Barry Keoghan is very talented, Rosamund Pike can deliver satire and Jacob Elordi looked handsome. Visually it was gorgeous and it was provocative, but overall I don’t find Fennell all that impressive as a director. She’s overrated. The movie was kind of all over the place.
I get no one asked for it. The up side- some people will read the book when the movie comes out. That’s why I am not hating on all cover songs and endless streams of remakes.
Is it wrong that i never heard of Jacob before this article?
I liked Saltburn and thought Jacob Elordi did a good job as Felix, but he is not the right choice for Heathcliff, can’t imagine him in that role at all.
I also don’t like Margot Robbie for Cathy…
Gosh. Its hard looking back on them now. I liked wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I also preferred JE. But my fav of that classical genre was P & P which I read yearly since aged 10 to 25 then every few years after. I’m happy to see a re-imagining. I hated the movie of P and P, with Knightly. it was lazy and crappy and didn’t reflect the book at all. It seemed the people who loved it hadn’t read the book. that the director never really read the book or saw other productions was very obvious. Suspicious of new productions of books I love but I guess we’ll see.
Also a diehard P&P fan, and I completely agree with you on the Knightley version! Some of the adapted lines would have had JA spinning in her grave. What are your thoughts on the Colin Firth series?
Someone on here a few months ago said that the P&P version with Knightley was a good movie but not a good adaptation of P&P and not a good AUSTEN movie and I thought that hit the nail on the head.
That is so true. It is a visually beautiful movie and an effective romance – but it lack the satire that would have made it Austen.
And Kiera Knightley was just so wrong for that role.
Yeah the trouble was that the Kiera Knightly version was a Bronte version of an Austen novel- completely different in tone and meaning.
Yep. Kiera lacked that sweetness that Elizabeth Bennett has that offsets her piercing wit and archness. Jennifer Ehle had that quality is spades and that is what makes her character so charming despite her tendency to cleverly put down people to their face. That is why Ehle will always be the quintessential Elizabeth Bennett, just like Colin Firth is also the quintessential Mr. Darcy.
Exactly so. I co sign the Brontë version of an Austen novel comment. Darcy walking in the misty moors with his shirt half open at the end was the opposite of what happens in any Austen novel. The Brontes said she was stuffy exactly because she wasn’t making her heroes do this.
I have so erased that version from my mind that, for a second, I thought you were saying Mr. Knightly was in P&P. Every woman in my family, from grandmother, mother, cousins and nieces, feels that Colin Firth is the superior Darcy.
Its kind of like how I erase the Dakota Johnson Persuasion from my head – although Mia McKenna-Bruce was amazing as Mary lol.
Sorry I can’t spell her name. But that version of P & P was horrifying. The director said he hadn’t read the book. And I find the actor who played Darcy not just a bad actor but utterly unconvincing as Darcy. The mini series really captured the book I thought.
Matthew Macfayden who plays Darcy in the movie is actually a wonderful actor, he was just wrong for the part. He is a brilliant comedic actor.
Absolutely, Eurydice! And Jennifer Ehle was the superior Elizabeth Bennet.
Ugh–the Johnson version of Persuasion definitely did not need to be made.
Have you ever seen Death comes to Pemberly? It’s an adaptation of a PD James novel, and has Matthew Rhys as Darcy and Anna Maxwell Martin as Lizzy and I just think they did so well with that casting, IMO. He’s my favorite Darcy. (I personally love the random stories inspired by P&P and Austen books, like there is a series of mysteries where the Darcy’s son and the daughter of the couple from Northanger Abbey solve mysteries and I LOVE them)
ooh what is the name of the series you are referring to? im always up for a new mystery
@ Lisa–the first is called the Murder of Mr. Wickham, by Claudia Gray. The series is called Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney mysteries. There are three so far!
I’ve never found a Jane Austen adaptation I liked. Austen didn’t write romance novels, but all the adaptations are basically romcoms, not searing indictments of a useless aristocracy and the suffocating restrictions of women’s lives.
I thought the persuasion movie with Amanda Root was pretty good
That’s one of my favorites!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check that one out.
Oh, wait, I want to amend this. Clueless is a great adaptation, at least in capturing the element of class warfare in Emma. It’s also just a fun movie in its own right and doesn’t shy away from the creepiness of Emma/Cher falling in love with a family member, LOL!
on a tangent, but this is the same issue with The Great Gatsby currently on Broadway. If you didn’t read the book, and you want a glitzy, broadway extraganza, you’ll LOVE IT.
If you read the book? you’ll hate it.
Jacob has the “gypsy brat” bone structure and coloring. I mean, if Timothy Dalton can do it, so can he. Just glower and snarl. Margot Robbie is beautiful but not young enough to play Cathy, who is only 18 when she dies in childbirth.
Elordi doesn nothing for me. His features look scrunched together in the middle of his face.
Lol, on the glower and snarl. When my brother was going through his mercifully short adolescent angst, my father used to greet him with “What’s up, Heathcliff?”
Heathcliff is described as dark as a lascar, he is not white. Elordi is soo wrong for this part. Not to mention that I doubt he can pull this role off acting wise.
This casting makes no sense if the script stays true to the book, where Cathy is at most in her late teens while Heathcliff is nearly forty. I love Margot Robbie but there is no way she carries off being a teen.
Thank you! Absolutely crazy casting choices considering the ages of the characters in the book.
That’s the part that bothers me most. Heathcliff’s ethnicity is ambiguous and could be interpreted many ways, but Catherine is a naive teenager. I feel like it’s gonna be a huge suspension of belief with Robbie, not because we don’t regularly see 30 somethings playing teens, but not a teen like Cathy who barely knows the world beyond her front door.
I can’t remember how old Cathy is when Heathcliff returns from his travels to find her… married to his rival? I do remember there were two Cathys… god it’s been years. Can’t remember a thing!
I loved Jane Eyre – I have very strong feelings about the toxic characters and plot lines of Wuthering Heights esp how some fans glorify the obvious domestic violence and MH as ‘a a fiery passionate love for the ages story’ (I had a friend who described the book that way when I mentioned the DV). I look at the book as a peek behind the curtain of those times where forced/arranged marriages, DV and MH issues were hidden away, esp as some literary historians have suggested that Emily herself suffered from MH issues (I think there are letters from her sister alluding to them).
I don’t get the obsession with that book in particular.
It is part of the Romantic movement in the arts with its use of extremely heightened emotions – and that does not necessarily mean that it is romantic in the way we usually use the term. This book is bonkers in so many ways, Heathcliff and Cathy are utterly unhinged in a unrealistic way that is just peak Romanticism.
I also enjoy the intricate narrative structure – as well as the exploration of the generational cycle of abuse that is first perpetrated upon Heathcliff and he then perpetuates upon Hareton. This story is just an incredibly intense tragedy on so many levels.
I think there are many reasons why people confuse this masterful novel with an ordinary romance – and I think the many film adaptations have had a big influence here.
I always saw this as an anti-romance – actually, anti on so many levels.
I completely agree that the book in bonkers in the sense of how intensely emotional the main characters are, esp when you compare it to other books/characters from the same era (Jane Austin etc..) who were very uptight and closed off.
I didn’t mean to imply that I thought the book was bad, its not – its a very well written book with many intricate threads woven throughout. Not many writers can pull that off.
I also agree that many movie/TV adaptations focus on the Cathy/Heathcliff romance, missing out the wider narrative that its actually about 2 very messed up people who knowingly destroy the lives of those around them.
I do think that Brönte’s novel is in part in rebellion against Austen’s novels. Romanticism was very defined against the neo-classicism of the Regency/Empire era, not just in terms of the heightened emotionality but also the role ascribed to nature. It is a rebellion against everything that is ordered, balanced and regulated.
And I do think of it as an anti-romance in a sense, because this book is just so incredibly dark. It is really something I noted when I re-read it as an adult. All the child abuse and domestic violence is very disturbing and I honestly find both Heathcliff and Cathy super annoying in all their histronic behaviour.
Interestingly, Austen criticizes the Romantics through the character of Marianne in Sense & Sensibility, just like she criticizes the Gothic literature in Northanger Abbey. I love those meta-textual aspects of those novels.
Love your comment. I read Wuthering Heights for the first time in high-school, and every time I re-read it, I find something new to analyze. I
okay you all are starting to convince me that maybe I should give Wuthering Heights another shot. I read it in HS and then read it again maybe…..15 years ago? When I went through a “I should learn to like the Brontes” phase and wasnt a fan. but maybe I should try again with some of this in my head.
Can I just say that I LOVE that we can have multiple posts about royal gossip, movie gossip, celeb gossip, political news, but I feel you can always count on CBers to want to chime in on anything Bronte or Austen related (I think so far this post has the most comments today lol.)
It’s gothic horror.
I agree that WH is an anti romance and that’s why most adaptations get it so wrong. Emerald Fennel tends to go for an arch tone in her movies and while Margot Robbie could get it right, I think she miscast Heathcliff.
Jane Eyre is more of a conventional romance although it wasn’t at the time and I think that’s why many group WH in there. Anne Bronte is closer to JE in tone with Tenant of Wildfell Hall but WH remains kind of unique because I wonder if it was written by a male it would be classified a bit different (once the Bell identities were known. ).
@Beck1,
I disliked WH when I first read it because the main characters are so obnoxious. Re-reading it when I was older really changed my opinion of it. Heathcliff and Cathy are still obnoxious but it is also kinda funny how unhinged they are. They become a bit of a caricature. What I found that I really liked was the structure of the narrative and the uncompromising way the novel explores the issues of generational abuse. While it adheres to the Gothic genre of the Romantic age, it is much more realistic in its darkness. It is an incredibly bold and powerful novel, especially in its historical context.
And I do wonder if its essence can be captured in an adaptation. It hasn’t yet IMO.
Bisynaptic–it sure is. It’s haunted from page one–and no one in it really escapes the ghosts of abuse, obsession, and hatred. Didn’t Heathcliff dig up Cathy’s body to dance with it? I believe the Ralph Fiennes version had the nerve to include that scene. 😳
Wuthering Heights is my favorite of the two. Jane Eyre always seems contrived to me because the characters are written like they know better and are more rational, but then they do all these dumb things. Heathcliff and Cathy are full of teenage angst and both are these hypersensitive goths. I never expected them to have a normal and healthy relationship.
Apt description – “hypersensitive goths.”
I spent one summer babysitting my sister’s kids and relaxing at the cheap on-campus movie theatre that screened old B&W classics. Laurence Olivier!
Olivier with Merle Oberon (as Cathy) who was in her late twenties when she was cast. 1939!! Black and white; my introduction to WH.
I’m not really a Bronte fan (I hate Jane Eyre and always have, I’ve tried so many times to like it and I just can’t.) But I also think Jane Eyre is more…..open in its darkness, I guess. I think a lot of people consider Wuthering Heights to be this great love story and I found it very dark.
So I think if Fennell plays up the dark side of it, she could do a really good job.
That said….I just cannot see Margot Robbie in this role. At all. Maybe she’s looking for something dark to remove the last vestiges of Barbie, but I think she’s too old unfortunately. And Jacob elordi – maybe? but not against Margot.
Margot Robbie is WAY too old for this role! Goodness.
Why Jacob when Dev Patel is right there, brilliant, talented and hot as the sun. And possibly Kiernan Shipka as Cathy. I don’t know but this casting is not it.
Exactly! Dev Patel would be perfect!
I just watched his last movie, Monkey Man. That man is truly very beautiful. He needs to do some romcoms.
He is so beautiful in The Green Knight, which is an incredible movie.
Dev Patel would be an excellent choice.
I quite liked Charlotte Riley as Catherine in the TV series from about 15 years ago (but wasn’t really a fan of the series itself).
LOVE the Dev Patel fancasting. He’d be perfect.
I prefer Daisy Edgar Jones as Cathy, but will suspend disbelief about MR and see what Emerald Fennel comes up with. I think she has flashes of brilliance.
That said, I adored Keira Knightly in PP and have read the book many times. I’m not a purist, I guess. Didn’t love the Colin Firth series. Too dry, albeit faithful.
I feel the opposite. I dislike the movie and love the show, it is so funny. Maybe not as “romantic” in our modern sense of the notion but it is hilarious and I love Austen for her biting wit. She was like that in real life, her relatives feared her sharp tongue. 😉
Oh wow. Dev as Heathcliff? Yes, sign me up plz.
I like that casting!
I answered a comment above with Patel. I can see him with Shipka hitting all the painful, angsty tones of the book.
I will wait until I see it but it doesn’t excite me.
What I will say is that Wuthering Heights is not a romance. It’s about all kinds of abuse and generational trauma.
I hate when we get crappy adaptations of my favourite books. It means having to wait longer for the next adaptation that might be good. The recent Rebecca for instance was AWFUL and now I have to wait another10 years for the next one.
OMG, the most recent Rebecca is soo bad. And totally miscast as well – Armie Hammer and Lily James. Really?
The recent “Rebecca” wasn’t even Rebecca! They turned a Gothic-light thriller into a sort of romantic adventure. The ending was stupid.
Sweet Jesus, that Rebecca was horrible. 🤮 You know a movie isn’t working when you’re more fascinated by the anti-herione’s choice of vintage fountain pens than much else. 😂 The only scene with any of the fear and creepy obsessiveness of the book was one in which Maxim sleepwalked into Rebecca’s bedroom–and it was intimated he did that every night. 😳 Kristen Scott-Thomas and Sam Riley were excellent as Mrs. Danvers and Favell, however.
It’s always been somewhat over-romanticised (the novel) as a classic love story, whereas in reality it’s a bit of an overwrought affair about obsession, cruelty, etc. with alcoholism, domestic violence, class issues and mental illness thrown into the mix. So an interpretation which explores that darker side through a modern lens could be interesting.
But I don’t think the casting is right. Cathy was supposed to be still a teenager when she died, and the description of Heathcliff strongly hints at Indian / maybe Roma heritage.
Ugh. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre have been remade soooo many times. Leave the Brontë classics alone, thanks.
But the best WH was the Tom Hardy as Heathcliff version and I’ll leave it at that.
I would actually like an adaptation that would really commit to explore the darkness that is at the heart of the novel – the abuse and obsession that is deeply tied up in class issues and race as well. However, I do not think this adaptation will be it.
Came here to say this. Tom Hardy will always be my favorite Heathcliff.
NY Mag had a thing about the casting, and someone said that Jacob Elordi does “vacant” very well, which is not what Heathcliff is, and I thought that was so funny. I haven’t see anything with Elordi except for that ep of SNL he hosted and the Priscilla movie, and I can see him being about to do vacant well
I think he would be perfect for Linton but he is all wrong for Heathcliff.
My father gave me a copy of WH as a gift when I was 15 with the inscription that he had loved it at that age as well. As I’ve gotten older I have returned to it and with age comes maturity and better understanding of context (as well as a minor in literature). At first glance, WH seems like a tragic love story, with the obvious narrative on class and race woven in. But it is actually a horror story, with all the gothic elements associated. I would go so far as to call it a ghost story.
I’m not excited about the casting, but I’m interested to see what Fennell does with the material. She’s into dark stuff and I appreciate that she likely sees this as a gothic horror. Still, screen adaptations of this novel have notoriously not done well.
I think Margot will be great. Young women are in everything. A mature Cathy will be good. Plus Margot can play young I think.
Really? You think she can play 15???
Heathcliff is most definitely not white in the book, and that is a central part of the backstory of his character. This whitewash casting is ridiculous.
Exactly. As far as I know there is only one movie that has acknowledged that Heathcliff is a man of colour and cast the part according to that. It is the one from 2011 (can’t remember the director but it is a woman).
Andrea Arnold! Though I’ll admit I couldn’t finish her version, and I usually love her work
Wuthering Heights is painful! Two emotionally immature and mentally unstable people ruin the lives of others around them. There is not a lot of love. It’s a painful story.
I’m excited to see what emerald fennel does with the gothicness of Wuthering Heights. I feel like she’ll be able to work with the darkness of the book better than others who have adapted it. Heathcliff and Cathy are such dark chapters. I’m less sure about Jacob Elordi: I can’t really see him murdering kittens or digging up a corpse. Barry Keoghan seems like he’d have been a better choice. (I love Dev Patel so much, but I can’t see him wanting this role.)
Riz Ahmed would be perfect as Heathcliff thou might be a bit too old however he is producing a movie where he is playing Hamlet so he could pull it off.
With Riz as Heathcliff you would def get to see the much darker side of the character.
Riz Ahmed would be amazing. He should be in everything.
Did anyone read What Souls are Made of by Tasha Suri? It’s a really fun retelling of WH that contends with Heathcliff’s identity more fully.
When did Heathcliff murder kittens?! Did I miss something?
Omg. I totally misspoke. It was Hareton and it was puppies, not kittens. (I’m a deeply embarrassed English major, haha.) It’s such a dark book. They’re almost all such dreadful people.
He did kill his wife’s dog though. He hangs it in front of her, on the night they elope, while she pleads for its life, and then gloats about his cruelty.
Jacob is tall and handsome but doesn’t have acting range like Barry Keoghan or Josh O Connor whom can become sexy and truly seductive machines on command. Forever obsessed with Josh since God’s Own Country 🔥🔥🔥 Barry and Josh seemed really smart and insightful during interviews. Jacob is lacking in that department too.
Heathcliff is Mr Earnshaws illegitimate son, thus he is mixed race. Cathy refers to him as “not a regular black”. Neither one of these people are appropriate imo.
You mean ‘indifferent’, not ‘ambivalent.’
I admit I have never read the book. “Jane Eyre” is among my favorites and I have read it a dozen times. I know the characters and basic plot of WH, but not the details. I didn’t realize Heathcliff was mixed race.
This seems like weird casting. Margot Robbie is a great actress and she can transform herself, like she did in the Tonya Harding movie, But this is a stretch. Jacob is OK but seems limited. She’s cast him before, so maybe she just likes working with certain actors on repeat? Carey Mulligan was in “Saltburn” in a small and rather unnecessary role after starring in “PYW.”
I don’t love Fennell’s work. It’s so stylized that it seems a little self-indulgent and gimmicky to me, but maybe I am missing something. I’ll be curious to see where this goes and how people react to it.
The Ralph Fiennes/Juliet Binoche version of Wuthering Heights will never be topped, IMO.
100% agree I love that version and there is a cameo by Sinéad O’Connor (RIP).
It made me read the book and just love how over the top it was. Oh, teenage me thought this was true love lol.
“I pray one prayer; I repeat it till my tongue stiffens. Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me, then!… Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!… I cannot live without my life. I cannot live without my soul”
I think Emerald Fennell is a director/writer/producer to watch and I look forward to her take on Wuthering Heights. I loved Saltburn and Promising Young Woman.
The continued whitewashing of Heathcliff, a LITERAL plot point of the book, is so very predictable.
Meh. Don’t know who Elordi is and I think Robbie is a decent actress, nothing special. I’ve seen every version of WH and not liked any of them. And it is a problematic story in many ways — not a romantic one. I can’t stand Jane Eyre either. I hate the way Bertha Rochester was portrayed. A mixed raced woman who is insane, jealous, violent, troublesome because she’s not English and not entirely white. Races are not supposed to mix or you’ll get insanity! F*ck all the way off. So she gets locked up because she’s an animal and Roderick goes after (and marries) the sensible white, quiet, intelligent Jane. All is right in the world again! Sorry, but nope, nope, nope. As a child, I hated how Bertha was written and how her background was portrayed. I don’t like the Brontes and, outside of Elinor Dashwood, I can’t tolerate any of Austen’s heroines either.
Have you read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys? She tells Bertha’s story, not a happy one but a good corrective.
I remember back in the day there was a movie with the same name? I just looked it up — I didn’t know that this was focused on Bertha. Nor did I know about the book. Thanks for the heads up! I definitely want to read it. Would love to read a story from Bertha’s perspective.
I’d have to revisit Jane Eyre, but it looked to me that Bertha was not confined bc of her personal traits, but bc of a mental illness that made her prone to violence. Her tempestuous character as a person of mixed race was sort of an excuse Rochester had tried to make for her until she was assessed by doctors.
Theirs was an arranged marriage where the dowry would pay for restoring Thornfield, however Rochester fell for Bertha’s beauty. Her parents pushed him to marry her as soon as manners allowed, after an engagement orchestrated to hide her condition.
She was still a victim, having been dragged from her country as an exotic bait for aristos and forced by marriage into many roles she was not ready for; while all she needed was peace and compassion.
Though there was a lot of misogynoir in how Bertha’s illness was described. The emphasis was on her “intemperate, unchaste” behavior–the usual evil mixed-race woman nonsense.
I hate this casting. Jacob is so bland and so many interesting actors she could have used of mixed race.
Now that I know Heathcliff is mixed race I kind of hate it too. I haven’t read the book and had honestly never even heard that, and I’ve had a teacher and friend or two who adored the book. They’ve cast white actors to play him (except for once apparently?). The mere fact I didn’t know this iconic literary character wasn’t white is just so telling.
Also, it feels like she wants to work with Elordi again because she cast him in “Saltburn” and liked his work. He was perfectly good in that movie, but to be fair he was the right fit for the role. It wouldn’t hurt her to branch out a little. There are so many great choices to play Heathcliff. It’s a classic and it needs to be honored. I just worry she is going to be all about creating her vision of the story and that often doesn’t work.
I must be a casting agent in a parallel universe because I am always fan casting potential adaptations. I’m still pressed at Barbra Streisand for putting herself in the role of Dr. Lowenstein in “The Prince Of Tides.” She directed that film very well, but miscast herself. It should have been Debra Winger. Nick Nolte on the other hand was perfect as Tom. Also well cast was her actual son, playing her character’s son. But that was a small part.
The first Heathcliff I remember is Laurence Oliver, so I guess no new interpretations have evolved yet.
Many people dont understand how dark and violent Wuthering Heights actually is. In film it’s always portrayed as a love story but in reality it’s about dark obsession as well as physical and emotional violence and despair. Heathcliff is no romantic hero and receives horrible abuse and doles out even more. Emily Bronte saw this as a nightmarish fever dream and so should we. Also Kathy and Heathcliff are very average looking people not sex symbols. It is their personalities and actions that define them.
Margot is a powerhouse, acting, producing, etc.
She promoted Barbie worldwide everywhere and rightfully had a big hit with it.
I’m surprised she didn’t get a bigger “name” to co-star in WH.
If it goes to Prime, I’ll stream it.
I hope she finds new original projects in the future.
Anyone else hearing Kate Bush in the background while reading comments?
I hate the casting and I hate Hollywood can’t have a single original idea anymore.
@the person that said he’s not white because he’s Spanish … Spanish people are white.