Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold has found her new project, reports Variety. She will directing an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, with a script written by Olivia Hetreed. This is a first adaptation for Arnold, as she has written the script for her previous projects. Producer Robert Bernstein said:
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 centre and its elements of class divide. It’s a very lucky coincidence for us that we’ve found each other.
Guardian also reports all the different directors and cast involved at one point:
Arnold, who won an Academy Award for best live-action short for her film Wasp in 2005, takes over from Peter Webber, director of Girl With a Pearl Earring. He left the project in December, having stepped in to replace The Edge of Love’s John Maybury, who dropped out of the project last summer. Natalie Portman, Abbie Cornish and Gemma Arterton have all been linked to the part of Brontë’s heroine, Cathy Earnshaw.
Bernstein also remarked how the success of Twilight played a huge factor in getting the project set up:
The Twilight factor is extremely helpful to Wuthering Heights. It’s clearly in the zeitgeist. Why is anybody’s guess, but people are absolutely obsessed with this doomed, romantic love that can only be achieved beyond death, or in the case of Twilight, by becoming a vampire.
I saw her recent feature, Fish Tank, at Toronto International Film Festival and loved it. Arnold has a very kinetic verite style that is extremely engaging. This seems to be a perfect match for her and can’t wait to here more news. If you want to get a sense of Arnold’s style check out the trailer for Fish Tank here.
Have you read Wuthering Heights? Do you think this is a good project for Arnold?