Wuthering Heights : A Modern, Provocative Adaptation Makes Its Paris Debut

Paris, Le Grand Rex, February 2, 2026

Today, the Grand Rex in Paris welcomed the Paris premiere of Wuthering Heights, one of the most eagerly awaited literary adaptations of the year. Attended by a large and enthusiastic audience, the screening was introduced by co-producer Josey McNamara, writer-director and co-producer Emerald Fennell, and actors Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, and Shazad Latif. Their appearance on stage was met with sustained applause, immediately setting the tone for a night marked by curiosity, expectation, and the feeling that this adaptation aimed far beyond the conventions of a traditional period film. From the very first moments, the atmosphere suggested a cinematic event designed to spark discussion rather than comfort.

Rather than attempting a faithful transposition of Emily Brontë’s novel, Emerald Fennell approaches Wuthering Heights as a subjective reinterpretation, openly embracing the impossibility of adaptation as a creative engine. First unveiled on January 28, 2026 at the TCL Chinese Theatre before its theatrical release in France on February 11 and in the United States and United Kingdom on February 13, the film asserts itself as a visceral experience intended for theaters, including IMAX screenings. The director’s insistence on framing the title as a version rather than a definitive adaptation reflects a broader ambition: to make period cinema feel immediate, unsettling, and emotionally charged rather than reverential.

At the center of the film, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi portray Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff as figures defined by excess, desire, and mutual destruction. Reuniting after Saltburn, the actors share a deliberately volatile chemistry that oscillates between attraction and hostility. By aging Catherine into her early twenties, Emerald Fennell strips the character of youthful naivety, giving her decisions greater moral weight and sharpening the tragedy at the heart of the story. Jacob Elordi’s physically intense Heathcliff, meanwhile, embraces emotional extremity, a choice that has already generated debate but remains consistent with the director’s openly personal reading of the novel.

The film’s production history further underscores its ambitions, notably following a high-profile bidding war in October 2024 that saw Warner Bros. Pictures secure distribution after agreeing to a full theatrical release, despite a higher offer from Netflix. That decision is reflected in a large-scale promotional campaign positioning Wuthering Heights as a prestige cinematic event. Visually, the film favors texture and materiality, with Linus Sandgren shooting on 35mm VistaVision across real locations in the Yorkshire Dales and monumental sets built at Sky Studios Elstree by production designer Suzie Davies, reinforcing a world in constant tension between decay and control.

Costumes by Jacqueline Durran and music by Anthony Willis, combined with original songs by Charli XCX, further push the film beyond traditional period aesthetics. The collision between orchestral score and contemporary music deliberately disrupts historical distance, aligning with Emerald Fennell’s belief that classic stories should provoke physical and emotional reactions. As the lights came up at the Grand Rex, the response suggested that Wuthering Heights had achieved exactly that: not a polite adaptation, but a bold, divisive cinematic statement designed to linger in memory and conversation.