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.