Ash Knotek/ZUMApress.com

Natalie Portman can't make time for another torturous period romance after all.

Despite being an early champion of the project, the Other Boleyn Girl star has had to drop out of an upcoming adaption of Emily Brontë's haunting classic Wuthering Heights because of a scheduling conflict, a rep for Portman confirms to E! News.

There's no word on who might fill Cathy's headstrong shoes now, but German-born thesp Michael Fassbender is reportedly in final negotiations to play Heathcliff and cameras are still set to roll this fall, with Brit John Maybury directing.

The film keeping Portman from tromping around the moors is as yet unannounced, but we do know that the almost-27-year-old has the Jim Sheridan drama Brothers, costarring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire, coming up, as well as the vignette-driven New York, I Love You, an American answer to last year's Paris, je t'aime.