Charli XCX has responded after fans on social media called Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights the “matcha dubai chocolate labubu of film”.
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The Saltburn filmmaker’s next project is an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as doomed lovers Catherine and Heathcliff.
The first trailer for the film arrived on Wednesday (September 3) and has been skewered for everything from its anachronistic wardrobe to its overt eroticism.
The sexually charged trailer was soundtracked by a new version of Charli’s ‘Everything Is Romantic’. Soon after it was shared, the singer revealed that the film would feature “new original songs by me” and wished everyone a “happy early valentines” ahead of its February 14 release date next year.
It’s proved divisive on social media, something Charli herself drew attention to when sharing a screenshot of a tweet that read: “wuthering heights starring margot robbie and jacob elordi featuring charli xcx on the soundtrack is kinda the matcha dubai chocolate labubu of film” in a new video.
@charlixcx hope you enjoy! xx
♬ Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush
Backed by Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, she captioned the post, addressing the backlash: “hope you enjoy!”.
As noted by The New Yorker recently, fleeting trends that have shot Labubu’s and “Dubai chocolate” to popularity are indicative of a culture shift in which “all ideas and aesthetics are simply atoms to be smashed together”, seemingly most fans’ biggest gripe with the trailer, which appears to stray far beyond the source material in a highly sexualised turn.
A test screening for the film last month reportedly caused controversy among its audience due to the graphic sexual scenes in the film, and social media users have since gone on to compare it to “soft porn”.
Announced last year, Elordi’s casting in the film has received significant backlash because of Heathcliff’s ethnicity, given he is described as “dark skinned” in the book. The erotic scenes are in keeping with Fennell’s previous work, with Saltburn featuring a famously controversial scene in which Barry Keoghan’s character, Oliver Quick, drinks the bathwater of his Elordi’s Felix.
In April, Jacob Elordi revealed that he wanted to “take a break” from acting, until Fennell asked him to star in her new project. Elsewhere, his co-lead Margot Robbie was reportedly in talks to produce and star in director Tim Burton’s remake of Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman.
