In the footsteps of Heathcliff and Cathy … Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Brontës are back in fashion – with a bit of help from Bella Swan. New films of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre will shoot next spring, and a script about the teenage fantasies of the four Brontë siblings is in the works.
The producers of the latest Brontë projects are targeting the Twilight audience with younger casts than previous versions and scripts that emphasise the sensational gothic elements alongside a contemporary psychological realism.
Wuthering Heights, directed by Peter Webber, will star 22-year-old Ed Westwick, a British actor best known from the American teen TV series Gossip Girl, as an unusually youthful Heathcliff. Gemma Arterton, 23, will play Cathy.
Jane Eyre, meanwhile, will be directed by Cary Fukunaga who, in the pursuit of authenticity on his last film Sin Nombre, got arrested for riding illegally on the roof of a cargo train. Jane Eyre stars the 20-year-old Mia Wasikowska, soon to be seen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, opposite Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester (who was at one point lined up for
Heathcliff in the other film).
Dominic Murphy, the British director who made his debut this year's with the harrowing White Lightnin', is writing an untitled project about the imaginative worlds invented by the Brontës as adolescents, isolated in their Haworth parsonage.
"There is a whole younger audience out there that is ripe to enjoy these darker versions of what is generally served up, and the response from funders has been very upbeat, especially in the light of the recent success of Twilight," says Murphy's producer Mike Downey.
"The Twilight factor is extremely helpful to Wuthering Heights," agrees producer Robert Bernstein. "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."
In Eclipse, Bella quotes Cathy on Heathcliff to describe her feelings for her vampire lover Edward: "If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger." It is this forbidden, obsessive romance between Heathcliff and Cathy that Webber's film will focus on.
Sales of Wuthering Heights shot up in France when it was marketed alongside Eclipse in bookshops. In the UK, Harper Collins republished it with a cover imitating the Twilight design, including an endorsement from "Bella & Edward". Head of sales Kate Manning says the gimmick has given teenage girls "a renewed interest in Brontë".
Jane Eyre doesn't enjoy the same direct Twilight connection, but Moira Buffini's script brings out the book's gothic thrills. "This isn't going to be Zeffirelli lite," says producer Paul Trijbits, referring to the insipid 1996 version of Charlotte Brontë's novel. "It's fear in a gothic environment set against the backdrop of a love story. Is there something in the attic, or isn't there? It's a bit like The Others."
Wuthering Heights will shoot next May in Scotland and Ireland – leaving the Yorkshire moors to take advantage of finance. Jane Eyre is scheduled for March, either in Yorkshire or Scotland. Murphy's untitled Brontë project is intended to shoot in 2011.
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 130 mins
- Directors: Chris Weitz
- Cast: Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Kristen Stewart, Nikki Reed, Peter Facinelli, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The producers of the latest Brontë projects are targeting the Twilight audience with younger casts than previous versions and scripts that emphasise the sensational gothic elements alongside a contemporary psychological realism.
Wuthering Heights, directed by Peter Webber, will star 22-year-old Ed Westwick, a British actor best known from the American teen TV series Gossip Girl, as an unusually youthful Heathcliff. Gemma Arterton, 23, will play Cathy.
Jane Eyre, meanwhile, will be directed by Cary Fukunaga who, in the pursuit of authenticity on his last film Sin Nombre, got arrested for riding illegally on the roof of a cargo train. Jane Eyre stars the 20-year-old Mia Wasikowska, soon to be seen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, opposite Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester (who was at one point lined up for
Heathcliff in the other film).
Dominic Murphy, the British director who made his debut this year's with the harrowing White Lightnin', is writing an untitled project about the imaginative worlds invented by the Brontës as adolescents, isolated in their Haworth parsonage.
"There is a whole younger audience out there that is ripe to enjoy these darker versions of what is generally served up, and the response from funders has been very upbeat, especially in the light of the recent success of Twilight," says Murphy's producer Mike Downey.
"The Twilight factor is extremely helpful to Wuthering Heights," agrees producer Robert Bernstein. "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."
In Eclipse, Bella quotes Cathy on Heathcliff to describe her feelings for her vampire lover Edward: "If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger." It is this forbidden, obsessive romance between Heathcliff and Cathy that Webber's film will focus on.
Sales of Wuthering Heights shot up in France when it was marketed alongside Eclipse in bookshops. In the UK, Harper Collins republished it with a cover imitating the Twilight design, including an endorsement from "Bella & Edward". Head of sales Kate Manning says the gimmick has given teenage girls "a renewed interest in Brontë".
Jane Eyre doesn't enjoy the same direct Twilight connection, but Moira Buffini's script brings out the book's gothic thrills. "This isn't going to be Zeffirelli lite," says producer Paul Trijbits, referring to the insipid 1996 version of Charlotte Brontë's novel. "It's fear in a gothic environment set against the backdrop of a love story. Is there something in the attic, or isn't there? It's a bit like The Others."
Wuthering Heights will shoot next May in Scotland and Ireland – leaving the Yorkshire moors to take advantage of finance. Jane Eyre is scheduled for March, either in Yorkshire or Scotland. Murphy's untitled Brontë project is intended to shoot in 2011.
