Netflix Trying to Acquire Emerald Fennell's ‘Wuthering Heights' for $150M

Back in July, Emerald Fennell announced that her next film would be an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel “Wuthering Heights.” Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are set to star in the adaptation. Robbie will play Catherine Earnshaw, and Elordi is Heathcliff. Fennell is set to write, direct and produce. 

According to Puck’s Matt Belloni, a bidding war has been sparked to acquire Fennell’s film. It’s gotten to the point where Netflix is now offering $150M to snatch up “Wuthering Heights.” There’s just one problem: Fennell and Robbie want a theatrical rollout.

Dan Lin, the new head of Netflix’s film unit, is refusing to budge. He’s saying that the $150M offer is “far more than other bidders” and that Fennell would only be so lucky to get a fraction of that money elsewhere. He’s not wrong, but Fennell/Robbie are worried about their film getting lost in the cultural landscape with a Netflix rollout.

Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria has already claimed that full-fledged theatrical releases are “not our model,” echoing her boss, co-C.E.O. Ted Sarandos. Bajaria said on Thursday, at a conference, “We’re just in a different business.”

Fine, you’re in a “different business,” but creatives like Fennell are quickly realizing that their films can easily get lost in the Netflix algorithm. What a theatrical release does is give a film some much-needed street cred. One look at Netflix’s most popular movies and you get lost in a wave of mediocrity.

So, will Fennell take the offer? Who knows. That $150M offer is a lot of money to turn down, and the filmmaker has already seen the benefits of streaming on her last film, “Saltburn,” which became a viral sensation thanks to audiences discovering it on Amazon’s Prime platform.

Fennell’s ‘Wuthering’ adaptation is currently in pre-production mode and gearing up for a UK shoot in 2025. No further details have been revealed at this time, including whether it would be a modern-day adaptation of Brontë’s novel. The fact that Netflix has offered so much money to acquire it means they see an abundance of potential in the script, and they’re no doubt attempting to give Fennell such an exorbitant offer that it would be very hard for her to refuse.