Saturday
10May2008
Will Portman's Departure Wither 'Wuthering Heights'
Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 8:34PM 
Not
so fast. A few weeks back,
we applauded the move to remake Emily Bronte's
Wuthering Heights and to give the role of
Catherine Earnshaw to
Natalie Portman. Well now, Portman has backed out of the
film,
so says Variety, over a scheduling conflict with an unknown project.
Portman may have left Heights to pursue A Tale of Love and Darkness, an
adaptation she has long earmarked for her feature directorial debut, but her surprise
exit leaves Wuthering Heights facing a big ol' question mark. Yes, you can find
another actress capable enough to play and suitable for
the role of Cathy, who loves her adopted brother Heathcliff but marries another
guy, but you can't find another Natalie Portman on every corner.
Certainly, if the project keeps forward momentum
somehow, the producers, Ecosse Films, will have their pick of actresses who'd
love the opportunity to tackle the classic story. But it may not be as easy as
calling
Keira Knightley or, oh I don't know,
Megan Fox, say. Catherine Earnshaw
is a weighty, weighty character, and with the rumored casting of British actor
Michael Fassbender in the role of Heathcliff, you can understand the need for a
sure thing in the role of Catherine. For the record, in the 1939
Wuthering
Heights,
Laurence Olivier played Heathcliff.
Then again, it could be as
easy as calling Keira. She
was reportedly
seriously interested in the role earlier this year,
and the film will be directed by
John Maybury, who's behind the camera on her
upcoming The Edge of Love.
As far as Portman is concerned, how do you take a role
you want in early April and then in early May back out? Did you just forget you
had other stuff going on? And even if you do, it had better be some pretty
important stuff to step away from Wuthering Heights.
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