About 
The director of the new sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die discusses how AI has changed since the screenplay was written.
Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: Emerald Fennell, Warner Bros, Wuthering Heights
"Wuthering Heights" Director on How the Ending Deviates from the Book
The director of "Wuthering Heights" reveals why the ending of the film had to make one key change from the ending of the book.
Article Summary
- Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" film alters the novel's original ending in a bold creative move.
- The adaptation omits Heathcliff and Cathy's final reunion, shifting emotional weight earlier in the story.
- Fennell explains she wanted to emphasize missed connections and bring important moments forward.
- The film has sparked debate among fans but opened to strong box office numbers worldwide.
By now, it is barely a surprise that Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" takes big liberties with Emily Brontë's popular novel. That being said, the adaptation has been bold enough and conversational enough to keep moviegoers showing up even as the choices have sparked plenty of debate. Still, one specific deviation near the finish line has caught some viewers off guard, because it removes a crucial kind of reunion that the book treats as a defining emotional release. Spoilers ahead if you have not seen the movie.
In Brontë's novel, Cathy and Heathcliff do share a final, combustible meeting before her death, and the story later leans into the idea of their bond haunting beyond the grave. However, Fennell's film closes the door on both of those beats as her version prevents Heathcliff from visiting Cathy at the end, leaving a different sense of finality at an earlier point in the film. So why the creative change?
"Wuthering Heights" Director Breaks Down the Ending
Fennell recently explained her reasoning to Entertainment Weekly, telling the outlet, "There are about three different meetings and three different speeches, and so part of it was consolidating that. But also, we talk a lot about Romeo and Juliet and, obviously, when we meet Isabella, she's talking about that kind of story and about that missed thing, and I feel so much that Cathy and Heathcliff's [romance] was about missing each other. And so what I did was I brought a lot of the love forward, and a lot of those really important conversations forward, to give them some time so that it didn't just happen at the end."
The movie's plot centers on Heathcliff's obsessive, destructive love for Catherine Earnshaw in 18th-century England, and it leans into the gothic as something bodily, dangerous, and intimate rather than prettified. Margot Robbie stars as Cathy opposite Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, with Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, and Alison Oliver among the key supporting cast.
While aspects have been divisive to some, the commercial side of the film's release has been harder to argue with, since the film has opened strongly at the box office over Valentine's weekend and pulled in around $38 million in the US over three days. And if that isn't enough to impress, official global box office reports already put the film at just over $83 million for the opening weekend, already matching its hefty $80 million production budget.
But what's your take on the changes? Did you enjoy Fennell's "Wuthering Heights"?
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
