Emerald Fennell Sets ‘Wuthering Heights’ Adaptation As Next Feature

Matt Grobar
·2 min read
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Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell looks to have found her next feature project on the heels of Saltburn, as she’s taken to X to tease that she’ll be helming an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the classic Gothic romance by Emily Bront?.

Sources tell Deadline that the project will reunite Fennell with studio MRC, which was involved with Saltburn in the same capacity. No word on who will star or distribute, but a tagline accompanying a piece of art posted to her official account reads: “Be With Me Always. Take Any Form. Drive Me Mad.” View the post below.

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Published by Bront? under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, a year before her death, Wuthering Heights is set in the Yorkshire moors and revolves around the intense and often destructive relationships between two families: the Earnshaws and the Lintons. The narrative is framed by Mr. Lockwood, a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, who learns about the tumultuous history of Wuthering Heights through Nelly Dean, a long-time servant. The core of the novel is the passionate and tragic love story between Heathcliff, an orphan adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, and Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine.

Over the years, the novel has spurred numerous adaptations for film and TV, most recently from Andrea Arnold, whose 2011 take starred Kaya Scodelario and James Howson. Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche led a 1992 adaptation from director Peter Kosminsky, with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon leading William Wyler’s all the way back in 1939.

Fennell is coming off of Amazon MGM Studios’ Saltburn, a divisive but highly popular psychological thriller starring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, which premiered last year at Telluride and went on to land two Golden Globe nominations, along with five BAFTA Film Awards. Keoghan leads the cast as Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford University who becomes entangled in the lives of an aristocratic family. Others in the cast of the film, examining themes of obsession, class dynamics, and privilege, included Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe and Alison Oliver.

Prior to Saltburn, Fennell broke out as a filmmaker with her directorial debut, Promising Young Woman, a darkly comic revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan. Distributed by Focus Features, the film landed her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, also securing nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Editing.

Also previously directing and producing the hit BBC series Killing Eve, Fennell is an accomplished actress, to boot, having garnered an Emmy nomination for her turn as Camilla Parker Bowles on Netflix’s The Crown. She’s represented by UTA, United Agents in the UK, Entertainment 360, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.

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