Wuthering Heights: Shazad Latif, Hong Chau & Alison Oliver join Emerald Fennell’s adaptation

Deadline reports that Emerald Fennell (Saltburn) has filled out the rest of the major roles for her upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights. Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Alison Oliver (Conversations with Friends) have joined the cast of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights, which was first published in 1847, deals with “Heathcliff, an orphan-turned-foster-son who falls in love with the daughter of the family who owns the estate on which he now lives, Wuthering Heights. After running away, Heathcliff rises up through the ranks of the gentry and exacts revenge on the families — the Earnshaws and the Lintons — who kept him from his true love.” Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are set to star in the film, with Elordi playing Heathcliff and Robbie playing Catherine Earnshaw. Warner Bros. is keen to get production going early next year, but Elordi is also slated to start shooting Euphoria season 3 in January.

It’s not known exactly who Chau and Oliver will be playing in the project, but THR says Latif will be playing Edgar Linton, “a well to-do neighbour who falls in love and marries Catherine but must then contend with Heathcliff who returns to enact a revenge on the Catherine and the Earnshaws.” Not bad, Clem Fandango. Not bad at all.

Warner Bros. snapped up the Wuthering Heights adaptation during a heated bidding war despite offering considerably less than other bidders. Netflix had reportedly offered a whopping $150 million for the movie, but Fennell turned the streamer down, which left them a little shocked. The reason came down to Fennell wanting a theatrical release for the film, which Warner Bros. fully supports, promising a wide release and a full marketing campaign.

Wuthering Heights has been adapted to the screen numerous times, including in 1939 with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, 1970 with Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall, 1992 with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and 2011 with Kaya Scodelario and James Howson.