MTV Will Make Musical Wuthering Heights
MTV announces that "Wuthering Heights", a music-driven film inspired by Emily Bronte's Classic novel, has been greenlit as the next original movie to appear on MTV. "Wuthering Heights" will be an adaptation of the Bronte novel about doomed and tragic love, conflicting passion and revenge -- updated for the MTV audience in a dramatic and music-driven tale.
The movie is set to go into production in Puerto Rico in May, 2003 and will air in the last quarter of the year. A blockbuster group of young actors and actresses including Erika Christensen ("Traffic"), Mike Vogel ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre") Chris Masterson ("Malcolm in the Middle") Katherine Heigl ("Roswell") and Johnny Whitworth ("The Rainmaker") are set to star in this adaptation. Christensen will play the role that was immortalized by Merle Oberon in the 1939 classic movie also starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Christensen, Vogel and Whitworth will be making their on-screen singing debuts.
Jim Steinman (Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell") will executive produce the movie and will provide his signature sound in original songs written for and performed in the movie by Christensen and Vogel. Suri Krishnamma ("A Man of No Importance," "New Year's Day") is set to direct.
"Wuthering Heights" tells the story of CATE (Erika Christensen) and HENDRIX (Johnny Whitworth), young siblings living with their counter culture father EARNSHAW in a ramshackle lighthouse known as 'The Heights'. Cate is free-spirited and happy, but curious about the world outside her home. On his travels, Earnshaw encounters a reclusive homeless boy, HEATH (Mike Vogel), who he invites into their home. Heath is an intense child with natural musical abilities, and he draws an immediate reactions from the family --- love from Cate, fatherly love from Earnshaw, and jealousy from displaced Hendrix.
Cate, in a desperate attempt to quash her feeling for Heath, accepts a hasty marriage proposal from EDWARD LINTON (Chris Masterson), a shy suitor. But their happiness is short-lived as Cate cannot escape her true feelings for Heath. As she withdraws, her adoring husband grows impatient and jealous. When Heath returns to reclaim the Heights from Hendrix, it's only a matter of time before he and Cate are reunited for one secret tryst.
