My take on Andrew Dominik directing any movie: as long as it gets him working. Dominik has two films under his belt – one the very good Chopper and the other the heartbreakingly brilliant The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – and it’s taken him a decade to amass just those credits. Now he’s attached to direct Blonde, one of two competing Marilyn Monroe films, this one based on Joyce Carol Oates’ fictional memoir of the same name.
Blonde tells the Monroe story from Norma Jean’s POV, playing with history to get at the drama and meaning behind the story of the most famous and lusted after blonde in history. To me this is an out of left field choice for Dominik, but as I said: as long as it gets him working. And it’s always interesting to see filmmakers expand what you expect from them.
The film, which is budgeted at a very modest 20 million, shoots next year. There’s a poster floating around Cannes with an image of Naomi Watts, who will be starring, as Marilyn. At this resolution I can’t tell if it’s Watts in costume or a Photoshop, but I think it gets across the initial concept.
From Allocine, via Coming Soon
8 comments
This seems like a pretty logical follow-up to Jesse James, actually. More deconstruction, different landscape.
I don't think it's TOO out of left field. I didn't see Chopper, but Jesse James dealt with legend/celebrity and from the plot description Chopper doesn't sound too far from that either. Monroe seems to fit right in.
Naomi Watts, while beautiful, is sooooo not right for Marilyn's look. She needs to gain about 20 pounds. I hope that it's a real poster.
to play marilyn she needs to gain 20 pounds and de age about 20 years cos naomi watts is starting to look like the cryptkeeper
This is incredibly interesting. It appears that Dominik loves exploring the perversion of celebrity. It's such a strong link between his prior movies and now this one…it's his pet theme. But "the perversion of celebrity" is far stranger and more interesting than most directors' pet themes (think Spielberg and daddy issues for comparison), and there are examples of perverse celebrity in pretty much every genre and time period. I'm excited by the prospect of following Domink's caree over the next few decades.
Out of left field? Not really. Both of Dominik's films are examinations of celebrity.
The more it sinks in, the more sense it makes that Andrew Dominik would tackle this material. But, YEAH, the guy who did Chopper now doing a movie called Blond about Norma Jean wasn't what I expected. Watts is beautiful, but feels totally wrong for this character's look, which is important given she's an icon based on her looks. Then again, so is Elvis (to a degree) and Kurt Russell nailed that part. Monroe was a lot younger, wasn't she? That seems important given that maybe some age, er, experience, would have helped her learn to handle herself better.
It's a brilliant script. Easily one of the best I've ever read.
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