Natalie Portman adds Wuthering Heights to busy schedule

Natalie Portman has signed on to play the lead in cinema's latest stab at Emily Bronte's classic (and classically heart-wrenching) novel Wuthering Heights.

The most famous film version of the novel released in 1939 starred Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. A second attempt at the film was the 1989 Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche interpretation that only grossed $624,643, according to Variety.com.

The movie will be made under the able guidance of Ecosee Films, the U.K. production company who recently gave us Becoming Jane and Mrs. Brown, and will feature the scriptwriting abilities of Olivia Hetreed, most famously of Girl With a Pearl Earring.

Portman makes her directorial debut with a short in the forthcoming New York, I Love You, and will act in another of the film's shorts. Notably, she appeared in 2006's Paris, je t'aime, as well as in the Hotel Chevalier, the companion to Wes Anderson's 2007 release, The Darjeeling Limited. Other recent Portman projects include this year's The Other Boleyn Girl, and last year's Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. She also recently starred in Devendra Banhart's new video for "Carmensita."

Meanwhile, forthcoming from Portman this December is Brothers, a remake based on Susanne Bier's film that also boasts Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal in its cast.

Whatever its reception, rest assured this new version of Wuthering Heights has got to be better than this other one: