While I don't see it happening, its important to remember that Dominik's last 2 films were not typical of their genre.
The Assassination of Jesse James is atmospheric and meditative and not an action-packed Western outlaw biopic.
Killing Them Softly uses Mafia gangland violence as a metaphor for capitalist society. In the same vein, I would expect
Blonde to be contemplative and dialogue-driven and not a glitzy Hollywood biopic. It's certainly not going to be another fluffy
My Week with Marilyn where the highlight was Michelle Williams mimicking Marilyn's iconic public appearances. That said, while I am sure Angelina can immerse herself in the role, I don't think Marilyn ranks high among the people she wants to portray onscreen. She still has Cleopatra and Gertrude Bell at the top of her list.
@AwardsDaily
LA Times
reports
that Andrew Dominik/Brad Pitt production of Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde
will go forward. Last time it wasbrought up, Naomi Watts (perfect in
many ways) would play Monroe. If it were me, I’d go with Jessica
Chastain or Angelina Jolie (what the hell). I think she has the beauty
and vulnerability to pull it off. She’d just have to lose the hard look
in her eyes she sometimes gets. But Chastain might be the one, though
she’s a little young. That was Michelle Williams’ problem, a brilliant
performance though it was.
Marilyn was not just one person. She was many people wrapped up in
one whom we all through many stages of her life. It is as hard to pin
her down as it is to capture the beauty of a butterfly in flight or
something vibrant and temporary as a rainbow. The camera caught her
perfectly but no other person ever really has been able to capture that
thing Marilyn had. But even if you can’t capture it you can turn in a
hell of a performance anyway, as Williams did.
The
A-list actor has come aboard to produce the filmmaker’s long-gestating
drama about the blond bombshell. "We're going to get this one done,"
Pitt told 24 Frames in a joint interview with Director Andrew Dominik.
Pitt said it's unclear whether he would take a role in the movie as well (
suggestions welcome on who he should play)
or simply produce. Pitt's been on a bit of a producing hot streak
lately: His company, Plan B, was behind two best picture nominees in
2012 ("The Tree of Life" and "Moneyball").
Pitt
and Domink collaborated on "The Assassination of Jesse James by the
Coward Robert Ford" and the upcoming hit-man movie "Killing Them
Softly." "Blonde" would mark a shift from those hard-boiled genres; it
would look at an imagined inner life of the iconic actress, an inner
life first imagined by Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote an acclaimed 2000
novel on which the film would be based.
Oates' "Blonde," which
also got the TV mini-series treatment a decade ago, has been in feature
development since at least 2009, when Dominik began writing a script
based on the book. Soon after, the foreign-sales company Wild Bunch
began peddling the project.
But it's back on the front burner
thanks to Pitt's interest and to some new financing possibilities.
Dominik wouldn't comment on the specific progress of the project, but
said
that shooting it in January or February of 2013 was not out of the realm of possibility.
When
it was first incarnated with Wild Bunch, Naomi Watts was slated to play
the lead part of Marilyn. But that was a long time ago, and
it's unclear at this point if the filmmakers would continue in that direction.
It
should be noted that "My Week With Marilyn" was hardly a blockbuster
performer: It grossed $14 million and garnered mediocre reviews. But
that film covered only a small slice of the actress' life. And, in any
event, expect a different kind of film from the Australia-based Dominik,
who departed from convention with both “Jesse James" (a non-Western
Western) and "Killing Them Softly” (which turns the hit-man movie into a
meditation on capitalism). Meanwhile, interest in Monroe continues to
grow with the 50th anniversary of her death approaching on Aug. 5.
Since
coming on the scene with his cult hit “Chopper” in 2000, Dominik hasn't
exactly worked at a feverish pace. He took seven years to make "Jesse
James" and five for "Killing." "He's got a terrible habit for writing
things on spec," Pitt said with a good-natured smile, implying that the
rights issues on "Blonde" may have bogged it down too. (Dominik wrote
his first draft on spec, that is, without locking down rights.)
But
Pitt's brand of surfer-boy intellectual and Dominik's auteur intensity
clearly combine for a kind of chemistry, with both of their
collaborations yielding solid reviews.
