Portman nabs the ‘Heights’

The Wuthering Heights, that is. Recent chatter has it that Natalie Portman is set to play the
headstrong and spoiled Catherine Earnshaw in a remake of Emily Bronte’s 19th century novel. Jane Austen
can’t be the only British writer, after all.

I’m starting to believe Portman has a penchant for playing
morally ambiguous characters. Catherine,
a devious social climber, parallels another of Portman’s recent roles – Anne
Boleyn in The Other Boleyn
Girl. But Portman plays sweetly to the cameras,
even when she’s plotting. In some ways, Portman seems tailor-fit for the role
(her performance in Closer comes to mind as background) but I’m
going to wait and see if she can bring the intensity and conflict the character
desperately needs.

Remake (1970) after remake (1992) after remake (2003), Wuthering Heights is like a holy grail
of success for Hollywood studios craving to replicate the success of the
original 1939 production starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Doomed,
passionate love is a tough act and if history can have its say, this newest
remake needs to break the repetition.

The script will be written by Olivia Hetreed; no stranger to
period pieces since writing Girl With a Pearl
Earring in 2003. No starting date has been set for the film, UK
producers Ecosse Films says (Becoming
Jane, Brideshead Revisited) as they are still searching for a perfect
Heathcliff. Who can play the malevolent orphan who delights in wrecking havoc
and violence on Catherine and her family? 

So far John Maybury (The Jacket and the upcoming The Edge of Love) is attached to direct the project.