Looking for a real Heathcliff

Now that Kaya Scodelario has confirmed she will be Cathy on Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights production, the interest relies on the casting of Heathcliff. The Times says:

WANTED: dark-skinned gypsy to play tortured romantic hero.
Film makers are seeking to cast an actor who resembles Emily Brontë’s original portrayal of Heathcliff, the brooding male lead, in a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
They are so determined to achieve authenticity that discussions have been held with members of Yorkshire’s Romany community. (...)
Andrea Arnold, an Oscar-winning director, wants to cast an unknown who may have foreign roots. Brontë described Heathcliff as being “dark-skinned gypsy in aspect” and “a little lascar” — a 19th-century reference to sailors from India.
“We’re certainly after somebody who best fits that Brontë description in the book,” said Gail Stevens, the film’s casting director. She is best known for finding youngsters from Mumbai to star in Slumdog Millionaire.
The Casting Website, an agency that allows aspiring actors to lodge their names online, has held auditions in Leeds, York and Sheffield. Local sources say it also visited traveller sites in the area. “But the gypsy community we talked to had some doubts,” said Rob Earnshaw, head of the agency.
The movie is due to start shooting this summer. It is jointly produced by Film4 and Ecosse Films. (Richard Brooks)

Another name has surfaced from the other ongoing Brontë production, Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre. Su Elliot (on the right, Credits: L.B. Photography) is the actress chosen to play Hannah.

The author Sara Bennett considers Wuthering Heights a great title in the Seattle Writing Careers Examiner. Another author, Kelly O'Connor McNees chooses Jane Eyre as one of her favourite characters on Woman's Day:

Jane Eyre was the child that no one wanted. She was sent away to live with her aunt, and they never treated her like she was part of the family. Then, she was sent to a terrible boarding school where she didn’t have enough to eat and they beat the children. She had so much strife in her life and she had no one to turn to. She became very independent, resilient and resourceful. I always admired that in her.” (Crystal Tate)

About her latest novel, The Summer of Louisa May Alcott, the Chicago Sun-Times tries to contextualize it:

McNees’ book is the latest in a series of books and movies imagining the love lives of famous literary figures — from the 1998 film “Shakespeare in Love” to more recent novels sexualizing Emily Bronte, Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson. (Mary Wisniewski)

katie jean joins in the Brontë-Along!, Fairweather Lewis posts about Wycoller Hall (possible basis of Ferndear Manor), Andra Sidan Klädskåpet talks about Villette (in Swedish), Julia: Just passing by chooses Charlotte Brontë for hottest historical women top 10 and A Striped Armchair doesn't like Wuthering Heights.

Finally an alert from Spain. The journal La Vanguardia offers Wuthering Heights 1939 in its Cine Platinum Collection.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Villette, Wuthering Heights