Is Emerald Fennell Making A Wuthering Heights Film?
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1 month ago
Time for Fennell's third film
Saltburn fans, it’s time to get excited. It looks like creator and director Emerald Fennell is working on a new project: an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, Wuthering Heights. Here’s everything we know so far.
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights: Plot, Cast, Release Date
On Friday (12 July), director Emerald Fennell posted an intriguing image on X with no caption. It’s an illustration of two skeletons by Katie Buckley, accompanied by the words ‘be with me always – take any form – drive me mad’, a quote from Emily Brontë’s novel. In the middle is the title ‘Wuthering Heights’. At the bottom, ‘a film by Emerald Fennell’ is written. That confirms it, then: Fennell’s next feature will be an adaptation of Brontë’s best known novel, Wuthering Heights.
— Emerald Fennell (@emeraldfennell) July 12, 2024
What Will Happen?
No news just yet Fennell’s interpretation of Wuthering Heights. However, being based on a novel, we already know the gist of the story. Wuthering Heights is an intergenerational tome, mainly focussing on Heathcliff and his paramour Catherine Earnshaw on a remote moorland farmhouse called Wuthering Heights.
Tracing the events of 30 years, Heathcliff begins as an adopted son of the wealthy Earnshaw family, with patriarch Mr Earnshaw raising Heathcliff as his own alongside his biological children Hindley and Catherine. Hindley hates Heathcliff while Catherine grows to love him, the pair becoming inseparable. When Earnshaw dies, Hindley sees his chance to enact revenge on the boy who stole his father’s love, reducing Heathcliff’s status to a servant forced to work in the fields. While Catherine and Heathcliff still love each other, she eventually decides to marry local wealthier man Edgar, prompting Heathcliff to run away. Three years later, Heathcliff returns to the estate, rich and educated, to enact revenge on the families he believes ruined his life.
Like Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, Wuthering Heights is a tale of deception and revenge, albeit with a very different backdrop. Fennell is far from the first filmmaker to adapt Brontë’s text for the screen: the first adaptation was created as long ago as 1920 as a silent film, while the most recent was Andrea Arnold’s 2011 version starring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson. How Fennell will put her own spin on the story is yet to be seen.
Barry Keoghan in Saltburn. © Prime Video
Who Will Star?
No news just yet on who will star, but our money is on a cameo from Carey Mulligan who has starred in both of Fennell’s films to date: as Cassie, the protagonist of Promising Young Woman (2020); and as Pamela in Saltburn, Elspeth’s friend, often referred to as ‘Poor Dear Pamela’.
After the success of Saltburn, we’d love to see the return of some of that film’s stars. With Wuthering Heights being very British, perhaps we will see the return of Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant or Archie Madekwe – or even Irish actors Barry Keoghan and Alison Oliver and the Australian Jacob Elordi, all with their very convincing British accents.
It’s also possible that Margot Robbie will make an appearance: her production company LuckyChap Entertainment (founded with her husband Tom Ackerley) produced both Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, while Fennell had a cameo in Robbie’s blockbuster flick Barbie (directed by Greta Gerwig) as Midge, the pregnant Barbie doll. No news just yet on who will be producing Wuthering Heights, but we’re hopeful this partnership will extend from behind the camera.
Fennell on the set of Saltburn with Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi. © Prime Video
Who Is Emerald Fennell?
British actor turned filmmaker, you might recognise Emerald Fennell from the likes of The Danish Girl, Call the Midwife, and portraying Camilla Parker-Bowles in Netflix’s The Crown. Most recently, though, she has risen to fame for her writing: she was the showrunner for season two of Killing Eve, and penned the book for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 2021 musical adaptation of Cinderella, while she made her feature film directorial debut in 2020 with Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan. In 2023, her much-anticipated sophomore movie was Saltburn which, of course, caused quite a stir, especially among families watching the flick over ‘twixmas.
Flashing back to Fennell’s childhood, she is the daughter of jewellery designer Theo Fennell and author Louise Fennell. Her sister, Coco Fennell, is a fashion designer, while Emerald’s 18th birthday party was documented in Tatler with the likes of Poppy Delevigne, Lady Alexandra Gordon Lennox and Alice Rugge-Price on the guestlist. She attended Marlborough College before reading English at the University of Oxford where she acted in university plays and was scouted by a talent agent, thus kicking off her acting career.
