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Kirsten Dunst To Direct Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’ Starring Dakota Fanning, Receives Emmy Nod For ‘Fargo’

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:47 PST, Jul 26, 2016

Kirsten Dunst is set to direct an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, according to Variety. The 34-year-old Jumanji actress will make her feature film directorial debut, while War of the Worlds actress Dakota Fanning is set to star in the upcoming drama.

Having adapted the script with Nellie Kim, Kirsten Dunst will direct Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel The Bell Jar, and it looks like the actress already has plans to start production in the first quarter of 2017.

Kirsten Dunst also invited Dakota Fanning to play the lead role of Esther Greenwood in the upcoming independent drama. Priority Pictures won the bidding war to make a reboot of 1979’s film The Bell Jar, which was directed by Larry Peerce starring Marilyn Hassett and Julie Harris.

Producers Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little, all from Priority Pictures, are set to produce alongside Fanning and Brittany Kahan from Echo Lake Entertainment. Celine Rattray, meanwhile, will executive produce the upcoming Kirsten Dunst-directed film.

In the novel written by Plath in 1963, Greenwood, who will be played by Fanning, becomes an intern at a magazine in New York City, and then she suffers from the subsequent breakdown from the horrors of the 1950s when she returns home to Boston.

The Bell Jar was the only book Plath published in her lifetime. The author committed suicide the same year the novel was released, in 1963. It will be Kirsten Dunst’s feature film directorial debut, but the actress-turned-director has previously directed two short films.

Kirsten Dunst’s first short film was Welcome, which debuted at Sundance, starring Winona Ryder and John Hawkes. The second short film was Bast*rd, which was screened at Tribeca and Cannes, starring Brian Geraghty and Lukas Haas.

Apart from starring in Kirsten Dunst-directed The Bell Jar, Fanning is also starring in the upcoming movie directed by Ewan McGregor, American Pastoral, which was adapted from Philip Roth’s 1997 novel of the same name.

It’s a good year for Kirsten Dunst. The 34-year-old has recently received an Emmy nod for the lead role on the second season of the limited series Fargo, according to the Los Angeles Times.

And Kirsten Dunst cannot contain her excitement for Fargo’s success this year. The FX limited series received 18 Emmy nominations this year. In her recent interview with Los Angeles Times, the actress shared her thoughts about the fate of her character, Peggy Blumquist.

Kirsten Dunst revealed that after hearing the news about a whopping 18 Emmy nominations last week, she and Fargo’s crew texted each other.

“It’s a great group of people and I feel like what Noah [Hawley] does with Fargo, it’s so well-deserved and he’s such a genius.”

Kirsten Dunst also said it’s double pleasure when you’re being recognized for a project you’re proud of. The actress revealed that she will celebrate Fargo’s success with “some turquoise” and then treat herself to some art.

When explaining the unexpected journey of her Fargo character, Kirsten Dunst said it was Noah and his writing team who made this whole thing special, adding that it was “fun” for her to play Peggy Blumquist on the show.

“The writing on that show is so great and the character was so unique. Things just don’t get written that often for women to play.”

Kirsten Dunst also said her mother was “very happy” her character wasn’t killed off the show. When asked for her opinion about where Peggy might have ended up, Dunst said she was certain her character has “some powerhouse” in the jail system to manipulate her way.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/AP Images]

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