Haunting and Dark

The Yorkshire Post talks about James Howson, the actor who will play Heathcliff in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

When he was revealed as the latest actor to take on the role of Heathcliff, the name James Howson was preceded by the word "unknown".
Not for long.
Leeds-based Howson, in his early 20s, is about to follow in the footsteps of Hollywood legends Laurence Olivier, Ralph Fiennes and Timothy Dalton by taking on the iconic role in the latest cinematic adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The (up until this point) unknown actor was plucked out of obscurity for the role by director Andrew Arnold, who took another unknwon, Katie Jarvis, and turned her into a star courtesy of her previous movie Fish Tank.
Casting the mixed-race actor seems to finally tally with Emily Brontë's wishes – the 1847 novel describes Heathcliff as a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect and a little lascar" – a 19th century reference to sailors from India.
In the novel, the young Heathcliff is found abandoned at the former slave port of Liverpool by the kindly Mr Earnshaw, who adopts him.
When casting for the film, which was shot around Yorkshire, Arnold and the production team are said to have wandered the streets of Leeds looking for likely "Heathcliffs" and held auditions for young actors with no previous experience.
James Howson's career is only just beginning. (Tom Richmond)

And both Wuthering Heights 2011 and Jane Eyre 2011 are two of the most expected films of the new year:

Charlotte Brontë's novel has been adapted numerous times, but never has it looked so haunting and dark. Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) star in this classic romantic drama, making it a must-see in 2011. (Alexandra Davis in I Am Rogue)

After watching Mia Wasikowska fall down the rabbit hole in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" and still manage to look gorgeous, how could we not be happy that she's returning to the 19th century for her latest film? Get ready for some serious period frocks when Wasikowska morphs into Charlotte Brontë's tragic governess Jane Eyre, in the character's latest big-screen appearance, March 11. (Stylelist)

Andrea Arnold, acclaimed for her grittily realistic take on modern British society in Red Road and Fish Tank, has directed a new cinematic adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Kaya Scodelario of Skins will play Cathy to virtual unknown James Howson’s Heathcliff; Howson will be the first black actor to take the role on screen. Meanwhile, director Cary Fukanaga takes on the work of another Brontë sister with his version of Jane Eyre, which looks set to ramp up the Gothic machinations of the novel and stars the intense Michael Fassbender (Mr Rochester) opposite the ethereal Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre).  (Mike McCahill, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Louise Levene, John Allison, Tim Walker, Bernadette McNulty, Horatia Harrod, Alastair Smart, Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski and Alex Varley-Winter in the Telegraph)

Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold) I fell in love with Arnold’s “Fish Tank,” just like I did her “Red Road” and am so curious what she does with a period/literary piece - which is a big stretch from where we’ve grown to love her.  (thelostboy in IndieWire)

The Brontë adaptation is by Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank), who has attracted attention for the not-at-all controversial move of actually reading what the text says and casting a non-Caucasian actor as Heathcliff (that's newcomer James Howson). (Ryan Gilbey in New Statesman)

Jane Eyre, the 1847 classic written by Charlotte Brontë, will be released in February [sic]. It stars Mia Wasikowska (most recently of "The Kids Are All Right") and Dame Judi Dench. (Mel Tavares in East Haddam-Haddam Patch)

Bitch Magazine carries an article about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea:

It’s time to head back to the nineteenth century, and one Miss Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre (1847) is, of course, one of the most widely-read books in the English language. But I wonder about the kinds of readings that are to be had here. And I wonder what I’m getting out of this book that would have gone over the head of Brontë, as a white woman from a colonising nation. These are sensibilities supplied by Jean Rhys’ parallel novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), as we will see. (Read more) (Chally Kacelnik)

A topic also covered on Wellreadweare's Blog;  Kat with a K and For What is Word review April Lindner's Jane; Tom Clark posts a poem by Emily Brontë together with a painting by Caspar David Friedrich; Sa Pananaw ni Kim Sioco posts about Jane Eyre (in Filipino) and Mary Book Reviews is reading it; Magic and Dread reviews Jane Urquart's novel Changing Heaven; Letras desde el Desván reviews Wuthering Heights (in Spanish); lizb2 posts on Flickr an atmospheric picture of the way towards Top Withens.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights