1. Sign me up! Holy crap I'm all over this one! *deep breath* Ok, I'm calm now-considering it will be at least a year before I can buy a ticket, if it comes to fruition at all.

While I think Fassbender would have made an excellent Heathcliffe (I'm sorry...ED WESTWICK!?!?) Tom Hardy in last year's BBC production knocked my socks off.

Posted at 4:07PM on Nov 20th 2009 by weetiger3

2. Y'know, this'll probably be a perfectly decent movie, but... Rochester is supposed to be ugly. Like, just flat-out ugly. Jane is plain, and Rochester is actively unattractive.

Now, I'm as much of a pushover as anybody (the Timothy Dalton version of "Jane Eyre" may well be my favorite, and Mr. Dalton is certainly easy on the eyes), but I'm kind of tired of the pretty Rochesters. Thank goodness for Toby Stephens' turn in the role.

Anyway, yes, the movie will probably be well done and a lot of fun, and of course I plan to see it, and Fassbender is a talented actor, but yeah, he's not exactly the perfect Rochester.

(As a side note, Heathcliff is actually portrayed as ambiguously racialized in the novel. It's about time to move past all of the pretty white guys for that, too.)

Posted at 5:07PM on Nov 20th 2009 by Reedo

3. Oh, it annoys the hell out of me that every casting director has cast Heathcliff as an Englishman. It's repeated over and over again in the book that he's "swarthy" and "a gypsy child." No one has ever cast a Spanish or Slavic actor in the role, and I think that would be so much more accurate. When I was younger, I always wanted to see Goran Visnjic do it, but now I think they need to look to Benicio Del Toro.

But English book, English actor ... sigh

Posted at 5:14PM on Nov 20th 2009 by Elisabeth

4. I've never had anyone outside of a Victorian literature course agree with me on the Heathcliff point before! How fun. I totally agree with you about Goran Visnjic, but I'm not as sure about Del Toro. He's a great actor, don't get me wrong, but I've always thought of Heathcliff more in a Slavic/Romani vein than in a Spanish one.

Just to take this one step further, Bertha Rochester was also portrayed as ambigously racial. She was from Jamaica and described as "dark" and bestial (which would've applied to blacks or partial-blacks in the imperialist [racist] British discourse). Sigh.

Posted at 5:25PM on Nov 20th 2009 by Reedo

5. LOL, it's the first time I've had this convo with anyone outside English too. :D Everyone just says "Did you ever see the Laurence Olivier one?"

I don't even care if they cast Heathcliff as handsome -- I always figured we were getting one person's perspective on the story, and beauty was in the eye of the beholder. But to cast someone as young and tender as Ed Westwick or even Tom Hardy (who did ok, but I expected something a lot meaner out of him) just really defangs the character. I can't believe no director has ever wanted to tap into the uglier parts of the character and the story. I know it's romantic, but it was the darkness of the obsession that I loved, not the playtime on the moors.

At least there's the book. It can outlast any adaptation, and Twilight too. :P

Posted at 5:44PM on Nov 20th 2009 by Elisabeth

6. Awful choice. They should have gone with Carey Mulligan. She would have been perfect!!!

Posted at 4:56PM on Nov 20th 2009 by AD

7. Orson Welles is the definitive Rochester, but I do love me some Fassbender. That dude (along with Christoph Waltz) MADE Inglorious Basterds for me. Such an awesome performance.

Posted at 4:59PM on Nov 20th 2009 by nelson

8. I don't have any knowledge of Bronte works so I can't talk suitability, but I do think Mia is something special having seen her in both In Treatment and, at the Denver Film Festival, That Evening Sun. I thought she has been terrific in both.

Posted at 1:41PM on Nov 21st 2009 by Bondo