By Lacy Baugher for Movies on July 15th, 2024

Emerald Fennell's 'Saltburn' Follow-Up Will Be a New Adaptation of 'Wuthering Heights'

The first look of the titular sprawling estate in 'Saltburn'

The first look of the titular sprawling estate in 'Saltburn'

Amazon/MGM+

No matter how you felt about Saltburn, there's no denying that it was one of the buzziest, most talked-about films of 2023. From bathwater memes and debates about the ending to the resurgence of Sophie Ellis-Bextor banger "Murder on the Dance Floor" on the music charts, its cultural impact was pretty much second only to the juggernaut that was "Barbenheimer." 

Though the film failed to make much of a splash during awards season, all eyes have since been on director Emerald Fennell to see what she'll do next. And it looks as though the former Call the Midwife star is planning to return to her period drama roots, teasing a forthcoming adaptation of the classic Emily Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. Fennell, who won an Oscar for writing the controversial female revenge flick Promising Young Woman (and got a nomination for directing it), shared an image on social media that features a skeletal emblem surrounded by the lines "Be with me always – Take any form – Drive me mad" from the novel. (It's basically peak Bronte, and one of the novel's most famous quotes.)

Published by Bronte under the pseudonym Ellis Bell about a year before her death, Wuthering Heights is the story of the dysfunctional and frequently destructive relationship between two families: The Earnshaws and the Lintons. A saga of obsession, passion, and tragedy, the novel's core is built around the doomed romance between Earnshaw's daughter Catherine and Heathcliff, an orphan the family adopted at a young age. Their love story is dark, achingly romantic, and utterly toxic by turns, which is basically a Venn diagram of all Fennell's interests as a storyteller.

“I’ve always been obsessed with the gothic,” Fennell wrote in a January 2024 column for the Los Angeles Times. “Whether it was Edward Gorey’s children who are variously choked by peaches, sucked dry by leeches, or smothered by rugs, Du Maurier’s imperiled heroines or the disturbing erotic power of Angela Carter’s fairy tales, the gothic world has always had me in its grip. It’s a genre where comedy and horror, revulsion and desire, sex and death are forever entwined, where every exchange is heavy with the threat of violence, or sex or both.”

And let's face it, there's almost no story that exemplifies the appeal of the Gothic more clearly than Wuthering Heights. Fennell's long-established interests in boundary-breaking women, class tensions, and frequently disturbing central romance would make her a perfect fit to tell this story. I know I can't be the only person dying to find out how she envisions Cathy Earnshaw.

Wuthering Heights has been adapted for screens, both large and small, many times over the years, with familiar names like Laurence Olivier, Charlton Heston, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes, and Tom Hardy taking on the role of Heathcliff. The most recent film adaptation was 2011's Wuthering Heights, starring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson, exploring Bronte's language to describe Heathcliff's race by casting a Black actor.

According to Deadline, the project will reunite Fennell with MRC, the studio behind Saltburn. No casting or other details about her Wuthering Heights are known as yet, and even the idea that it will be a period-set piece is little more than enthusiastic speculation. Fingers crossed for more details sooner rather than later.

By Lacy Baugher for Movies on July 15th, 2024
Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

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  • Wuthering Heights Has A New Trailer, Maybe The Film Will Actually Get Released This Time?

    Considering that this movie made my list of films for Anglophiles to get excited about last winter and we’re still waiting for a theatrical release ten months later, I’d pretty much given up hope on this latest adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights ever seeing the light of day in American theaters. The film screened at both the Venice and Sundance Film Festivals and then….apparently fell off the face of the earth. Except not really, as Wuthering Heights now has a brand new trailer and a new “limited” release date of October 5, 2012. Allrighty, then.

    The film stars Skins’ Kaya Scodelario as Cathy and newcomer James Howson as Heathcliff, who is notably the first black actor to take on the famous role. Adapted by Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold, this version attracted a fair bit of controversy last year due to its interracial casting and some rumored changes to key scenes.

    This new trailer is actually completely different – and generally better, if you ask me – than the version released back in 2011 – so here’s hoping that means that the folks behind this film have regrouped, rethought their marketing strategy and are actually going to let us see this time. Click through to take a look for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments – is this interesting to you? Or has cinema in general gone to the tortured romance well too many times in remaking this story?

    By Lacy Baugher for Movies on 9/17/2012