Wuthering Heights (2026 film): Difference between revisions

 

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===Critical response===

===Critical response===

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|70||64|ref=yes|access-date=February 10, 2026}} {{Metacritic film prose|60|31|ref=yes|access-date=February 10, 2026}}

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose||||ref=yes|access-date=February 10, 2026}} {{Metacritic film prose|60|31|ref=yes|access-date=February 10, 2026}}

David Sims of The Atlantic called “Wuthering Heights” a “heaving, rip-snortingly carnal good time.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/wuthering-heights-movie-review-emerald-fennell/685938/ |title=An Erotically Untamed Take on Wuthering Heights|last=Sims|first=David|date=February 9, 2026|access-date=February 9, 2026}}</ref> By contrast, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as “an emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/09/wuthering-heights-review-emerald-fennell-margot-robbie-jacob-elordi |title=Wuthering Heights review: too hot, too greedy adaptation guarantees bad dreams in the night|last=Bradshaw|first=Peter|date=February 9, 2026|access-date=February 9, 2026}}</ref>

David Sims of The Atlantic called “Wuthering Heights” a “heaving, rip-snortingly carnal good time.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/wuthering-heights-movie-review-emerald-fennell/685938/ |title=An Erotically Untamed Take on Wuthering Heights|last=Sims|first=David|date=February 9, 2026|access-date=February 9, 2026}}</ref> By contrast, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as “an emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire.”<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/09/wuthering-heights-review-emerald-fennell-margot-robbie-jacob-elordi |title=Wuthering Heights review: too hot, too greedy adaptation guarantees bad dreams in the night|last=Bradshaw|first=Peter|date=February 9, 2026|access-date=February 9, 2026}}</ref>

==References==

==References==

2026 film by Emerald Fennell

Wuthering Heights (stylized with quotation marks) is a 2026 romantic drama film written and directed by Emerald Fennell and loosely inspired by Emily Brontë‘s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. The film stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, alongside Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell in supporting roles.

Wuthering Heights premiered at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 28, 2026, and will be released in theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on February 13. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

In July 2024, filmmaker Emerald Fennell announced that she would write and direct an adaptation of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.^[2] In September 2024, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi were cast as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, with Robbie also producing under her label LuckyChap Entertainment alongside financer MRC. Robbie previously produced Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020) and Saltburn (2023), the latter of which starred Elordi.^[3]

A bidding war in October led Netflix to bid $150 million for the distribution rights.^[4] Warner Bros. Pictures, with whom LuckyChap has a first-look deal and made Barbie (2023), ultimately won the rights with a significantly lower offer of $80 million after granting Fennell and Robbie’s wishes for the film to have a theatrical release and a significant marketing campaign.^[5][4]

Elordi had been contemplating taking a hiatus from acting before Fennell offered him the lead role without having to audition.^[6] The decision to cast a white actor as the racially ambiguous Heathcliff, described as resembling a “dark-skinned gipsy” or “Lascar” in the novel, sparked controversy.^[7] In November 2024, Hong Chau, Alison Oliver (who starred in Saltburn), and Shazad Latif joined the cast.^[8] In March 2025, Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, and Vy Nguyen (all three making their film debuts) were announced as playing young Catherine, Heathcliff, and Nelly.^[9] In September 2025, Fennell defended her decision to cast Elordi, stating that he “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read.”^[10]

Principal photography took place in the United Kingdom from late January to early April 2025, using 35mm VistaVision cameras. Filming occurred at Sky Studios Elstree, with location shooting in the Yorkshire Dales including the valleys of Arkengarthdale and Swaledale, the village of Low Row, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.^[11][12][13] Linus Sandgren was the cinematographer.^[14] During the first week of filming, Elordi accidentally gave himself a second degree burn when he stepped back against a steaming hot brass knob while taking a shower and had to go to the hospital.^[15]

Anthony Willis will compose the score for the film, after having worked with Fennell on Saltburn, with Charli XCX contributing an album of original songs.^[16][17] The lead single, “House” featuring Welsh musician John Cale, was released on November 10, 2025,^[18] alongside a music video directed by Mitch Ryan.^[19] A second song, “Chains of Love“, was released on November 13, coinciding with the film’s theatrical trailer, which also featured the song.^[17] A third single, “Wall of Sound”, was released on January 16th.^[20]

“Since its publication 200 years ago, critics have challenged Wuthering Heights’s validity as a love story,” Fennell said in a statement shared by the BFI. “It is too shocking, too cruel, too narratively strange to slip neatly into the world of romance, but it is a love story nonetheless. While researching it, I rewatched many of my own favorite ‘love stories,’ ones that challenged, subverted, even obliterated the conventions of the genre. These are stories which put the love story under duress, which stick a needle into the strawberry trifle, which show love in all its freakish, gory detail: Random Harvest (1942) by Mervyn LeRoy, A Matter of Life and Death (1946) by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell, Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) by John Schlesinger, Donkey Skin (1970) by Jacques Demy, The Night Porter (1974) by Liliana Cavani, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, Crash (1996) by David Cronenberg, Romeo + Juliet (1996) by Baz Luhrmann, The End of the Affair (1999) by Neil Jordan, Romance (1999) and Bluebeard (2009) by Catherine Breillat, The Handmaiden (2016) by Park Chan-wook, The Beguiled (2017) by Sofia Coppola^[21].

The film’s first trailer and poster, the latter of which paid homage to Gone with the Wind (1939), were released online on September 3, 2025, after promotional billboards appeared in multiple cities, including New York City, London, and Los Angeles.^[22] The film’s title treatment was designed by Chips design studio based in Brooklyn, New York. It is based on a poster from an earlier adaptation Wuthering Heights (1920), starring Milton Rosmer.^[23]

The film’s title is stylized with quotation marks. Fennell stated that “any adaptation of a novel” should be enclosed in quotation marks: “The thing for me is that you can’t adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book. I can’t say I’m making Wuthering Heights. It’s not possible. What I can say is I’m making a version of it.”^[24] On January 20, 2026, Elordi and Robbie were announced as the cover stars of Vogue Australia‘s February 2026 issue.^[25]

On January 28, 2026, Wuthering Heights had its world premiere at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.^[26]
Wuthering Heights is scheduled for release in the United States and the United Kingdom on February 13, 2026, on the eve of Valentine’s Day.^[27] It is slated to release in IMAX theaters.^[28]

The film is projected to gross around $40 million on its opening weekend.^[29]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 72 critics’ reviews are positive.^[30] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating “mixed or average” reviews.^[31]

David Sims of The Atlantic called “Wuthering Heights” a “heaving, rip-snortingly carnal good time.”^[32] By contrast, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described the film as “an emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire.”^[33]