Going Blonde: Jessica Chastain to play Marilyn Monroe in new film biopic produced by Brad Pitt
Jessica Chastain is being lined up to play Marilyn Monroe in a new film biopic.
The 37-year-old red-headed actress is 'nearing a deal' to play the icon in a new adaptation of the 2000 historical novel Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, according to The Wrap.
The project will be produced by Brad Pitt's production company Plan B, with the actor reported by a source to have been 'instrumental in convincing [Jessica] to tackle the challenging role of Marilyn Monroe.'
Pitt and Chastain co-starred in Terrence Malik's 2011 film The Tree Of Life.
Andrew Dominik, who directed Pitt in filmsThe Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford and Killing Them Softly, will helm the film from his own script.
'My heart belongs to Marilyn,' Dominik told IndieWire when quizzed about the project back in 2012. 'It's a really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie, and I really want to do it real bad.
'It's a story about an abandoned orphan who gets lost in the woods.'
A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Blonde is a re-imagining of the life of Marilyn Monroe in novel form, with Oates drawing on biographical and historical sources for her portrait of the fragile icon who was born Norma Jean Mortenson.
Despite being a natural redhead, Chastain appeared as a blonde for 2011 film The Help which won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Chastain's portrayal comes three years after Michelle Williams took on the role of the superstar in My Week With Marilyn which explored the troubled production of The Price And The Showgirl.
Madonna also played a version of Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in her 1984 Material Girl video.
However, The Wrap report that Chastain's portrayal is expected to be 'much different' with Blonde taking 'an unconventional approach to examining the Hollywood starlet's life and career.'
Blonde is slated to begin filming in August with a 2015 release date in mind.
Chastain has been particularly busy of late - she will star in a number of movies this year including Christopher Nolan sci-fi mystery Interstellar alongside Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey and Miss Julie - based on the 1888 play - with Samantha Morton and Colin Farrell.
She is currently filming Guillermo del Toro's horror film Crimson Peake.
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