(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 16 November 2025 19:15, UK
She might not be someone you’d particularly want to have a bath after, but there’s no doubt British director Emerald Fennell makes movies that get people talking. Her adaptation of Wuthering Heights arrives next year, and judging from the reception to the trailer dropping, that’s going to be no exception.
But sexy dinosaurs? That might be a bit of a stretch, even for someone who made licking plugs a thing on the big screen. It’s something on Fennell’s wishlist, though, if everything that she comes out with is to be believed.
Anyone who enjoyed Saltburn, the sexy upper-class family drama tinged with tragedy that had everyone humming ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ in 2023, will know that Fennell is a considerable talent, but although that was the film that brought her to the attention of the general public, she had already made waves and won an Oscar for her debut.
That was the 2020 genre mash-up Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan, a story about skewering ‘nice guys’ and taking revenge, a post-MeToo movie that earned Fennell an Oscar for ‘Best Screenplay’ at her first attempt.
But she’d already proved her writing chops thanks to her work alongside good friend Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Killing Eve, the slick spy drama that ran for four seasons and featured Jodie Comer as the twisted assassin Villanelle.
Fennell had also worked extensively in front of the camera for more than a decade previously, acting on British TV shows like Call the Midwife and earning acclaim for her performance as Camilla Parker-Bowles in Netflix’s Royal drama The Crown.
So it’s fair to say she’s achieved a hell of a lot as an actor-writer-director, with a lot more to come. As for what might be in store, perhaps Steven Spielberg might be allowed a raised eyebrow of concern if he were to read Fennell’s comments to Deadline, where she stated:
“My favorite film of all time is Jurassic Park, so I would love to get in on the dinosaurs,” she said. “Well, first and foremost, it’s very erotic. I think humans and dinosaurs have gotten to that stage in their time together where things are starting to get quite thrilling. So, there’s a marriage between a man and a velociraptor and it’s basically a domestic drama.”
Fennell must have seen something in the 1993 blockbuster that we missed, although we’ll acquiesce to the fact that Jeff Goldblum does a fine job of being a lithe, shirt-opened maths-lothario and that Laura Dern manages to make long safari shorts pretty hot. None of the dinosaurs are very sexy though, especially not the velociraptors, who are in fact absolutely terrifying, especially if you’re stuck in a stainless steel kitchen with them.
Next year’s Fennell offering, the saucy adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, is an entirely different animal, however, all bodice-ripping and Jacob Elordi rolling around with Margot Robbie, which let’s face it, is much more arousing than a brontosaurus nibbling some leaves.
You can watch the first full trailer for the film, which has a soundtrack by Charli XCX, below and the movie drops on Valentine’s Day next year, where no doubt husbands will be dragged to cinemas and then quizzed on why they can’t be 6 foot 5 inches tall like Elordi.
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