Kirsten Dunst may not be the first actress you think of as a potential filmmaker, but that's only if you still think of her as the girl from Bring It On. She's worked with a number of top directors over her career, and quietly has directed a pair of short films while developing her feature debut. Now we know what that project is going to be, and it's a challenging one as she plans to adapt Sylvia Plath's classic melancholy novel, The Bell Jar.
Dunst will direct the film which Dakota Fanning will take the lead in. The Bell Jar would turn out to be Plath's only novel, and many say the depressed girl at its center is a reflection of her own depression. The story, which Dunst will adapt alongside Nellie Kim, centers on Ellie Greenwood, a young woman who moves to a new town and begins to succumb to mental illness.
Plath would commit suicide at the age of 30 in 1963, about a month after it was first published in the U.K. It wouldn't hit the U.S. until eight years later. A film adaptation starring Marilyn Hassett was released in 1979.
It's good to see Dunst taking this next step in her career, and that she's unafraid to do it with such a high-profile piece. Filming is to begin early next year so we may not have to wait too long to see it. [Deadline]
