Andrea Arnold Climbs Wuthering Heights

Tragic romance for Fish Tank's creator

Andrea Arnold Climbs Wuthering Heights

by James White |
Published on

The latest cinematic version of Emily Bronte's classic tome Wuthering Heights has had a hell of a time finding a Cathy or a director. But now it has one of them at least: Fish Tank's Andrea Arnold has signed to call the shots.

The team at Ecosse Films must be wiping their collective brows and crossing their collective fingers that she sticks around longer than John Maybury and Peter Webber, who both flirted with the idea of the directing job, but ultimately vacated the chair.

And with Arnold in place, the movie might finally lock down a cast, since seemingly every suitable actress, including Natalie Portman, Abbie Cornish and Gemma Arterton have been attached to the role of doomed lover Cathy at one point or another.

Olivia Hetreed has adapted the novel, which sees a damaged romance play out between the moody Heathcliff and the passionate Cathy, even after she dies and haunts his life.

While it's an unexpected turn for Arnold - she's only ever worked on her own scripts in the past, and nothing quite as high profile as one of England's most famous literary titles - the intense emotions and troubled characters of both sexes would seem to be a good fit.

Oh, and she loves the book too, apparently: "Andrea has previously said that the only book she would ever direct would be Wuthering Heights, because of the passionate, impossible love story at its center and its elements of class divide," producer Robert Bernstein gushed to Variety. "It's a very lucky coincidence for us that we've found each other."

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