14 DAY TRIAL // A Marilyn Monroe movie that has been stuck in production limbo since 2010 is finally on the right track: Andrew Dominik’s passion project, “Blonde,” has finally found its star, with actress Jessica Chastain set to play the iconic screen siren.
Confirmation of the casting comes from The Wrap, which also details that Brad Pitt was instrumental in getting Chastain on board. Pitt is producing “Blonde” with Dede Gardner and their Plan B, after coming on board in the summer of 2012.
Pitt and Chastain starred together in “Tree of Life” and are believed to share a relationship that goes beyond the professional. He thought she would make a great Marilyn and took the time to convince her of it, because she was not exactly open to the idea.
Playing Marilyn is always a challenge, as Michelle Williams found out most recently in “My Week with Marilyn” because she’s an icon and fans have certain expectations from any actress taking up the role.
However, The Wrap says, Chastain should have fewer problems than Williams because the film is based on an imagined biography by Joyce Carol Oates, so the result should be halfway between biopic and pure fiction.
“It's a really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie… about an abandoned orphan who gets lost in the woods,” Dominik said at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, as cited by the trade publication.
No estimated production timeline or release date has yet been made public.