Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell is set to bring Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights to the big screen. Fennell, known for her directorial debut Promising Young Woman (2020), will adapt and direct the new version of the iconic 19th-century tale. This marks a significant move for Fennell, who continues to make waves in the film industry with her unique and compelling storytelling.
The project, announced by Fennel on her Twitter X handle, will see her tackling one of literature’s most complex and dark love stories. “Be with me always – Take any form – Drive me mad,” the graphics on the post read which is a line from the classic book. According to Variety, Fennell will reunite with MRC, with whom she collaborated for Saltburn (2023) before.
Wuthering Heights, published in 1847 has been adapted multiple times for both film and television, but Fennell’s version promises a fresh and contemporary take on the timeless narrative. William Wyler adapted the book in his 1939 film in which he directed Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. In 1970, Robert Fuest’s film starred Anna Calder Marshall and Timothy Dalton; Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche starred in Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 film.
Emerald Fennell’s debut feature film, Promising Young Woman, garnered critical acclaim and won her the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film was praised for its bold approach to difficult subjects and its innovative narrative style, elements that Fennell is likely to bring to her adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
In January 2024, Fennell wrote a column in the Los Angeles Times, in which she wrote, “I’ve always been obsessed with the gothic.” She also, penned, “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,” Fennell added.
In adapting Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell joins a prestigious list of directors who have tackled the novel, including William Wyler and Andrea Arnold. Given Fennell’s track record of creating thought-provoking and emotionally resonant films, her take on Wuthering Heights is highly anticipated by both literary enthusiasts and cinema-goers alike.
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