Director Andrew Dominik is the critically acclaimed director behind The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Chopper (2000) which made Eric Bana a star, and the upcoming Killing Them Softly starring Brad Pitt which opens November 30th. In a recent story from The Playlist, when asked what his next project will be Dominik revealed that his passion project — the Marilyn Monroe biopic BLONDE which he has been working on for years — could finally begin shooting in 2013.
BLONDE will be based on legendary writer Joyce Carol Oates‘ bestselling 2000 historical novel of the same name that chronicles the inner life of Monroe, though Oates insists that the novel is a work of fiction that should not be regarded as a biography. It was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 2001, the National Book Award 2000, and is regarded as one of her greatest works. At over 700 pages, BLONDE is Oates’ longest work of fiction. In an interview she said, “I intended it to be a novella, somewhere around 175 pages, and the last words would have been ‘Marilyn Monroe.’ But over time, I got so caught up in her world that I couldn’t stop there. The final result was this book. The first draft was, originally, longer than the version that was finally published. Some sections were shortened while others had to be surgically removed from the book. Those sections will be published separately.”
Andrew Dominik describes his film version of BLONDE as covering Marilyn’s entire life, and is very much a Polanski-esque descent into madness. Dominik’s also described the film as an “emotional nightmare fairytale.” He continues: “It’s very pseudo-Freudian. The lines between fantasy and reality become very blurred in the story.” Naomi Watts has long been attached to the project and Dominik says there is still a good chance Watts will be available for the anticipated shooting of the film at some point in 2013.
To purchase your own copy of Joyce Carol Oates’ BLONDE be sure to visit Amazon. And if you have not yet seen Oates’ hour-long discussion of how she writes, which includes her reading from her master work The Gravedigger’s Daughter you can watch a preview below and watch the full hour by CLICKING HERE. Trust me — it’s worth every single second.
