With actor and producer Brad Pitt and Australian director and screenwriter Andrew Dominik hitting the Cannes Film Festival last month for their film Killing Them Softly, the duo are now set to work together on Dominik’s upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, which Pitt has been confirmed to produce.
Based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates and previously adapted into a 2001 TV mini-series starring Poppy Montgomery, Dominik has been expressing his interest in making the film for a long time, and even wrote the script for the film before he secured the rights to the novel.
Dominik was supposed to have started shooting the film in January 2011, but problems (mainly financial) kept getting in the way. Nevertheless, with Pitt now throwing his weight behind the film as a producer it looks as if the film is taking its first steps in motion, and Dominik’s risky gamble is most certainly beginning to pay off.
Whilst nothing is locked down just yet, and whether Pitt will be taking a role himself or not is still unknown, the film is apparently feasible for January or February 2013 shoot.
What we do know, however, is that Dominik intends to make the film on a much bigger scope compared to Simon Curtis’ recent My Week With Marilyn which starred Michelle Williams as the iconic actress. “It’s a really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie, and I really want to do it real bad,” Dominik said at Cannes. “It’s a story about an abandoned orphan who gets lost in the woods.”
Now Dominik needs to put his focus on finding his leading lady though. Whilst it was previously thought that Naomi Watts was set to play Monroe after she became attached to the film in its early days, it seems that the filmmakers are now looking to go in a different direction, though it’s not exactly clear why.
Nevertheless, we are sure to hear more about Blonde soon so keep your eyes and ears open.
(Source: IndieWire)
