Emerald Fennell to Direct ‘Wuthering Heights’ Adaptation

Emerald Fennell poses backstage with the Oscar® for Original Screenplay during the live ABC Telecast of The 93rd Oscars® at Union Station in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Credit/Provider: Matt Petit / A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

Preview:

Emerald Fennell has teased she’ll adapt ‘Wuthering Heights’.
It’ll be based on Emily Brontë’s novel.
No casting has been announced yet.

Given that her first two movie projects –– one an Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay –– were stories she wrote and directed herself, it’s almost surprising to learn that Emerald Fennell has her eyes on an adaptation.

And not just any source material, but Emily Brontë’s gothic classic ‘Wuthering Heights’, which has hit screens a variety of times in the past. Still, it appears that is no barrier to a fresh take, particularly one from the filmmaker behind ‘Promising Young Woman’ and ‘Saltburn’.

Fennell teased her new project via a social media post:

pic.twitter.com/NZXNYAm1wZ

— Emerald Fennell (@emeraldfennell) July 12, 2024

Of course, a tweet is one thing; what the actual project will entail is quite another, but whatever Fennell chooses to do will surely be anticipated.

Fennell has previously written about how gothic themes influence her –– and played into ‘Saltburn’ in a column for the Los Angeles Times:

“I’ve always been obsessed with the gothic. 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.”

So, ‘Wuthering Heights’ certainly makes sense for her.

What’s the story of ‘Wuthering Heights’?

1939’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. Photo: United Artists.

Brontë’s book, published in 1847 under her pseudonym Ellis Bell, follows Heathcliff, an orphan-turned-foster-son who falls in love with the daughter of the family who owns the estate on which he now lives, Wuthering Heights.

After running away, Heathcliff rises up through the ranks of the gentry and exacts revenge on the families — the Earnshaws and the Lintons — who kept him from his true love, Cathy Linton.

“I am torn with Desire . . tortured by hate!”

NR1 hr 44 minApr 7th, 1939

What previous adaptations of ‘Wuthering Heights’ have there been?

(L to R) Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in 1992’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. Photo: United Artists.

There have been a variety of adaptations of the book in the past, including William Wyler’s 1939 film starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon; Robert Fuest’s 1970 movie with Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall; Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 film led by Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche and Andrea Arnold’s 2012 effort, starring James Howson and Kaya Scodelario.

“A passion. An obsession. A love that destroyed everyone it touched.”

PG1 hr 45 minOct 16th, 1992

On the small screen, 2009 saw a TV miniseries with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley in the lead roles, and series in 1978 and 1998.

And not forgetting Kate Bush’s 1978 song “Wuthering Heights”.

When will Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ storm its way on to screens?

Since all we know about the project at this point is that Fennell intends to make it (or at least something based on it), there are zero details to offer on a release date, since it doesn’t have a studio or streaming home yet.