The upcoming biopic centered on Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë, entitled Emily, has begun putting together its cast with the additions of Emma Mackey (Sex Education) amongst others in the lead role, according to Deadline.
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The film, which is being written and directed by Frances O’Connor (Locke & Key) in her directorial debut, will focus on the transformative and uplifting journey to womanhood of a rebel and a misfit that would become one of the world’s most enigmatic and provocative writers who died at the age of 30.
Alongside Mackey, the film’s cast will include Joe Alwyn (The Favourite) as Brontë’s conflicted lover, Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) as Branwell Brontë, Emily’s inspiring but self-destructive brother, and Emily Beecham (Cruella) as sibling writer Charlotte.
The project is set to be produced by Harry Potter‘s David Barron, Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford’s Tempo Productions (The Wife) alongside Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson of Arenamedia (Paper Planes).
“We are going to produce a movie of significant ambition – for audiences to enjoy and celebrate the scale of Emily Bronte’s own magnificent imagination,” Barron said in a statement.
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Emily‘s international sales are being handled by Embankment, with production currently slated to shoot in Yorkshire, United Kingdom, in early 2021. O’Connor, who broke out on the big screen with 1999’s Mansfield Park, is best-known for roles ranging from Bedazzled to A.I. Artificial Intelligence to The Conjuring 2 and her Golden Globe-nominated turn in the miniseries Madame Bovary.
“Emily Brontë’s work and words are full of passion, feeling, violence, and fierce intelligence,” O’Connor said in a statement. “In creating an imagined life for Emily, she will live again for our audience. Her story is about a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. Emily is, in fact, a love letter to women today, especially young women, a calling to them to challenge themselves to connect with their authentic voice and potential. I am so excited to work with such a thrilling, talented, young cast; luminous, intelligent, and spirited.”
