Frances O’Connor reaches for wuthering heights on Emily

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Shooting in the UK, the film fictionalises Emily Brontë’s origin story and will mark the writing/directing debut of the Australian actress.

“Emily Brontë’s writing is steeped in such passion, feeling, violence, and fierce intelligence – that I’ve always yearned to know who she really was,” said Frances O’Connor in a press release about the Wuthering Heights author. “Emily is about a rebel and misfit, a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. And, in creating an imagined life for her, I hope Emily Brontë will live again!

 

“Our film will brim with energy – intimately capturing the emotional intensity and adrenalin of youth, with all its messy honesty, heartbreak, humour and fearlessness; matched by the scale of our stunning locations.”

 

Starring Emma Mackey (Sex Education, Death on the Nile), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk, Voyagers), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man, The Haunting of Hill House), Alexandra Dowling (The Musketeers), Amelia Gething (The Spanish Princess), Gemma Jones (Ammonite, Rocketman) and Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty), with behind the scenes crew including Academy Award winning Costume Designer Michael O’Connor (Ammonite, All is True, The Duchess, Jane Eyre), Director of Photography Nanu Segal (Old Boys, The Levelling), Production Designer Steve Summersgill (A Hidden Life, The Hunger Games saga, Aladdin, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Cloud Atlas), Emmy nominated Casting Director Fiona Weir (Last Letter From Your Lover, Ammonite, The Duke, Judy, My Cousin Rachel, Brooklyn, Room, Suffragette), BAFTA nominated Hair & Make-Up designer Lucy Cain (Killing Eve) and Editor Sam Sneade (Sexy Beast, Birth), Emily is being produced by Melbourne based filmmaker Robert Connolly (The Dry) through his company Arenamedia.

 

“Emily is a remarkable work, and with our partners in the UK we are thrilled to be supporting Frances in realising her vision to write and direct her first feature film,” said Connolly.

 

Also producing is David Barron (Harry Potter franchise, Cinderella, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) and Piers Tempest (Military Wives, Ordinary Love, The Wife) and Arenamedia’s Robert Patterson. Madman have the rights to Australia/New Zealand distribution, whilst Embankment are executive producing and financing, with multiple territories already sold, including the UK to Warner Bros. as well as France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Benelux, Scandinavia, Greece, Israel, Middle East, and South Africa.

 

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