If there’s anything good in this world, Emerald Fennell will let Margot Robbie scream “naur!” as she runs along the moors chasing after Jacob Elordi. The two Australian actors have been cast as Catherine and Heathcliff in the director’s upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, a novel pretty famously centered on a manor in England. Still, there’s tons of time left for Fennell to say “fuck it” and reset the whole thing in Melbourne; we still don’t know any real details about her take on the classic, and neither actor has gotten to perform in their native accent in such a long time. Come on, Emerald; give the people what they want!
The news comes from Deadline, which also reported that Robbie’s LuckyChap will produce the film. This will be the third collaboration between Fennell and the Robbie-owned company, which also produced her first two features Promising Young Woman and Saltburn. It will be the first time Robbie has actually starred in one of Fennell’s films. It’s not the first time for Elordi, who, through no fault of his own, made a few too many headlines last year for his role as young lord Felix Catton in Saltburn. (The bathwater-themed candles and soundtrack vinyl were a bridge too far.)
If we never see another Fennell bathtub scene again it will be too soon, but seeing as she cast the star of her last film, one which already drew pretty heavily on Brontë’s novel, in this one, we can probably expect a few retreads. Last year, long before the direct adaptation was announced, the director even spoke to TIME about turning to Wuthering Heights for inspiration when writing Saltburn. “There’s a scene in Wuthering Heights after Cathy dies when Heathcliff digs down to her coffin and tries to get to her. It’s very clear what he’s intending to do, which is to, at the very least touch her, kiss her. So it’s part of the Gothic tradition that sex and death are kind of intertwined,” she said. It’s getting harder to see where (or if) the two features will meaningfully diverge, but if the team needs some inspiration, Australian accents would be a great place to start!