Kirsten Dunst is set to direct an adaptation of The Bell Jar starring Dakota Fanning. Dakota Fanning is attached to star as Esther Greenwood, the depressive Plath avatar who finds herself increasingly suffocated and mentally unstable while navigating a summer job at a magazine; the casting seems appropriate, since Fanning is already playing another troubled literary Jewish college student in this fall’s American Pastoral. “We’re in the rewrite phase (of the script) and we have an actress”.
Advertisement
There was a previous movie version of The Bell Jar in 1979 and Gwyneth Paltrow played Plath in a 2003 biopic, Sylvia.
Dunst directed a pair of short films – “Welcome”, starring Winona Ryder and John Hawkes, which was screened at Sundance; and “Bastard”, starring Brian Geraghty and Lukas Haas which screened at Tribeca and Cannes. Production is expected to begin early next year.
“I might be doing that next year”, Dunst said. “It’s nearly all together, but I can’t fully talk about it yet”, she added.
Advertisement
Some of Dunst’s most impressive performances in front of the camera have been in dark-tinged tales, like Melancholia, Interview with the Vampire, and The Virgin Suicides, which will no doubt serve her well when she directs a larger cast of her own. Kirsten’s TV husband and rumoured real-life boyfriend, Jesse Plemons, is also up for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, while the show itself is shortlisted for Outstanding Limited Series, among other awards.
