Out on the wily, windy moors... Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is starting to take shape. Having announced back in July that her follow-up to last year's spicy satire Saltburn will be a fresh take on Emily Brontë's literary classic, everybody's favourite British provoc-auteur has it seems found her Cathy and Heathcliff — and found them down under, no less. Per Deadline's reporting, Aussie stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are set to take on the roles of the doomed lovers in Fennell's upcoming film, which is currently in pre-production and eyeing a 2025 UK shoot.
For Elordi, who'll be following in Tom Hardy, James Howson, and Ralph Fiennes' footsteps to bring Brontë's Byronic hero to life here, Wuthering Heights will be a quick reunion with his Saltburn director. And given the themes of that similarly Gothic tale — passion, revenge, obsession, death — and Elordi's tragic part to play within it, it's not hard to imagine him getting his 19th century malcontent on for this one. As for Robbie, who was most recently seen in last year's fuchsian fable Barbie (which, coincidentally, featured a cameo appearance from Fennell), this project will follow hot on the heels of her upcoming, Colin Farrell co-starring Kogonada joint A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
For now, we don't know whether Fennell's planning a straight adaptation of Brontë's book, which centres around the tumultuous history of the titular farmhouse and the destructive romance Heathcliff and Cathy share. That being said, when the project was first announced, the Promising Young Woman filmmaker did share an illustration by Katie Buckley adorned with Heathcliff's immortal lines, "Be with me always — Take any form — Drive me mad" — which bodes well for a faithful take on the once-controversial source material. But as for all our other pressing questions — Will Elordi be pulling a Barry Keoghan and giving us a full Liverpudlian accent? Will Elordi be pulling a Barry Keoghan and getting up to some funny business involving a gravesite? — we'll just have to wait patiently for answers. And listen to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights on repeat for the next however many months and years ahead... naturally. Heathcliff! It's me, I'm Cathy, I've come home...