neither Ralph Fiennes nor Lawrence Olivier seem remotely sane choices to cast as Heathcliff.

See, I think Ralph Fiennes is perfect. He's all intense and vaguely crazy.

See, I think Ralph Fiennes is perfect. He's all intense and vaguely crazy.

Fiennes is way to clean cut for the role, imho and too light haired.

The creepiest think about Wuthering Heights that's stuck with me lo these many years is something that a prof. put forth in college: Heathcliff and Cathy were step-siblings.

His reasoning was that Cathy's father brought urchin!Heathcliff home to live with them, but -- why that specific child? Surely there were umpteen urchins from which he could have chosen, so in picking Heathcliff, he must have had a reason, such as fathering an illegitimate child with some random woman.

Now, I don't think that Heathcliff and Cathy being step-siblings is textually supported, but if it were true, it's an extra layer of both creepy AND crazy.

Fiennes is way to clean cut for the role, imho and too light haired.

Yeah, but -- clean-cut and light-haired can be altered with no problem.

Step-siblings or half-siblings?

...actually, the obvious choice to play Heathcliff is Sean Bean. I mean, he's from South Yorkshire, not North Yorkshire, but what's a few miles between friends? He'd be awesome. Who to put opposite him...hmm...that's the thing, it should be someone who hits you with her strength of character first and foremost, not her fragile beauty.

Sean Bean would be AWESOME as Heathcliff. For Cathy, I propose Emily Watson. (Come to think of it, Bean and Watson were in that pretty-but-stupid movie, Equilibrium, together as lovers, but we never got to watch them together since it was pre-movie.) Watson's got the acting chops and the intensity, and she could be ferocious when needed.

who views you as an equal, and who scares the crap out of other people but not out of you because you are so utterly two halves of the same whole - I can see the appeal of that. But that isn't the same as finding that character inherently appealing. It's the dynamic that's appealing, I think. It's just that people mistake the two.

So much this. It's a bit of train wreck, these two utterly crazy people who are so clearly suited for no one but each other, and cut this swath of destruction through the world because of it -- it's sort of awesomely terrifying and gorgeous in its own way, like a tornado or a hurricane.

I always felt like I might want *someone* to love me like that, before realizing what that might actually mean (i.e., when I was, like, ten).

HE KILLS PUPPIES.

Step-siblings or half-siblings?

Yikes! Half!

Thanks for rescuing me from my brain fuzziness. Maybe cutting out sugar was a bad idea. My brain is STARVING!

Sean Bean would be AWESOME as Heathcliff. For Cathy, I propose Emily Watson.

This I would watch.