It was just three years ago that Michelle Williams earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis' My Week With Marilyn, but already another big screen portrayal of the Hollywood legend is in the works. Today, the project has found an actress to take on the role. The Wrap is reporting that Jessica Chastain is now attached to play Monroe in Andrew Dominik's upcoming drama Blonde.
Chastain, who has twice been nominated for an Academy Award, isn't the first actress to come aboard the project, as Naomi Watts signed on to star all the way back in 2010. In case you couldn't tell, this film has been around for quite a while, but now it appears it's finally starting to get in motion. The movie will be an adaptation of the novel of the same name by author Joyce Carol Oates. You can read the official plot description below, courtesy of Amazon:
In this ambitious book, Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker—the child, the woman, the fated celebrity and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe. In a voice startling, intimate, and rich, Norma Jeane tells her own story, that of an emblematic American artist—intensely conflicted and driven—who has lost her way. A powerful portrait of Hollywood's myth and an extraordinary woman's heartbreaking reality, Blonde is a sweeping epic that pays tribute to the elusive magic and devastation behind the creation of the great twentieth-century American star.
The 700-page book was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award when it was released in 2001. Oates' work has been used as source material for the big screen many times, the most notable probably being the 1996 adaptation of Foxfire starring Angelina Jolie.
As one of the most popular, talented actresses in Hollywood, Chastain has been immensely busy and has multiple films set to come out this year and next. Right now her next film officially scheduled for release in the U.S. is Christopher Nolan's Interstellar - which will be out in November - but her upcoming slate also includes the August Stridberg adaptation Miss Julie, J.C. Chandor's drama A Most Violent Year, and Guillermo del Toro's throwback horror Crimson Peak.
Scheduling is still being worked out with Chastain and Blonde, as she is also scheduled to soon start production on the World War II drama The Zookeeper's Wife, but the hopes are to start shooting Blonde in August of this year - presumably in target of a 2015 release date.
