‘Erotic’ Wuthering Heights revealed in film’s first trailer

The first trailer for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is full of longing stares, sexual tension and even some bread kneading.

Fennell, whose film Promising Young Woman won her an Oscar for best original screenplay in 2021, also directed the 2023 thriller Saltburn, which went viral with scenes involving bathtubs and graveyards.

She has now turned her attention to adapting Emily Brontë’s 1847 classic novel, which stars Barbie star and producer Margot Robbie, Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi and Adolescence star Owen Cooper.

Those who have seen Saltburn won’t be surprised by some of Fennell’s artistic choices in the short clip, which appears to be more overt in its eroticism than the 1847 gothic novel.

The trailer includes a topless Elordi toiling outdoors, bread being suggestively kneaded and broken eggs being handled.

The footage also suggests suppressed sexual urges, with corsets being tightened, lingering shots of the main characters and brooding images of the Yorkshire Dales.

A story of passion and revenge, the film is based on the original story of the destructive, obsessive love between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff.

The tale also explores the issue of class and the relationship between the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two wealthy land-owning Yorkshire families.

Fennell’s project was subject to a bidding war last year, with Netflix reportedly offering $150m (£111m) for it, according to Variety.

Eventually the rights were won by Warner Bros, who are believed to have paid $80m (£59m) but with the promise of a cinema release and extensive marketing.

The film isn’t being released until Valentine’s Day next year, but already billboards promoting it have appeared in the UK and the US with the tagline “drive me mad”, which also features in the trailer.

Music for the film will include original songs by Charli XCX and a score by Anthony Willis.

During a promotional tour for another project, actor Jacob Elordi, who also starred in Saltburn, told Deadline, “It’s an incredible romance, it’s a true epic, it’s visually beautiful. The script is beautiful, the costumes are incredible.”

“The performances from everyone – it’s breathtaking,” he added.

There has been some backlash over Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff – who is described as having dark skin in the book.

Casting director Kharmel Cochrane defended the decision, and told Deadline: “You really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book. That is not based on real life. It’s all art.”

Wuthering Heights has been adapted several times before. In the 1939 version, Heathcliff was played by a white actor, while in the 2011 version he was played by a black actor.

This has formed part of the social media discourse on the trailer, with others highlighting how the book’s erotic charge hinges on its lack of sexual contact and branding the trailer “50 Shades of Bronte”.

The original book also inspired Kate Bush’s song of the same name, which topped the charts in 1978 when she was just 18.