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

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.