I’ve just landed in Toronto. Here’s the “Wuthering Heights” trailer. It’s visually stunning. All hail, DP Linus Sandgren. The cinematography looks beautiful, and it’s easily the trailer’s clearest highlight, along with some of the set designs and period details. The casting of Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie has stirred some controversy in recent months, but they “look perfectly fine” in their roles.
The film, described by one test attendee as “aggressively provocative” and “tonally abrasive,” leans hard into Fennell’s now-familiar brand of overstylization. It’s a sensual take on Brontë’s novel, full of salacious imagery. Reports suggest the adaptation will “diverge significantly” from the source material, playing out much as one might expect from Fennell reinterpreting a literary classic through her increasingly polarizing lens.
This could well be the most unusual “Wuthering Heights” to date—and that might not be a bad thing. The last thing anyone wants is another by-the-numbers adaptation. What the next film version needed was a jolt of fresh energy, something bold and unexpected. For better or worse, that seems to be exactly what Emerald Fennell may have delivered.
One of the most tormented love stories ever written, “Wuthering Heights” follows the troubled orphan and antihero Heathcliff and his doomed love for Catherine Earnshaw. The ensuing consequences of his obsessive affection set the stage for a tale of revenge and social climbing.
There have been four major movie adaptations of Brontë’s novel, released in 1939, 1970, 1992, and 2011. I personally liked the 1970 version best, which starred Timothy Dalton, but there’s always room for improvement; a definitive cinematic take on the source material remains elusive.
Has Fennell “cracked the code” and delivered a worthy “Wuthering Heights”? Who knows. The real draw may be her back-to-back work on “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn,” coupled with the alluring presence of Robbie and Elordi.
Warner Bros. has scheduled the film for a Valentine’s Day 2026 release.
