Director Andrew Dominik's fictionalized Marilyn Monroe pseudo-biopic Blonde is set to be one of the biggest contenders in this year's slate of true story films, alongside projects like Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. The film stars the captivating Ana de Armas as Norma Jeane Mortenson, the woman who would become the blonde bombshell we know today.

In an interview with Collider, Dominik talked about this passion project which he wrote back in 2008, based on the Joyce Carol Oates book of the same name. An early cut of the film was screened for the author who took to Twitter to shower the project with praise. She posted,

"(just a parenthetical aside--I have seen the rough cut of Andrew Dominick's adaptation & it is startling, brilliant, very disturbing & [perhaps most surprisingly] an utterly "feminist" interpretation... not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything this.)"

The film, which is set to premiere on Netflix in December of the year, co-stars Adrien Brody and Bobby Cannavale. Dominik, who's past directorial credits include The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, spoke openly about what we can expect from the film,

"Well, the whole idea of Blonde was to detail a childhood drama and then show the way in which that drama splits the adults into a public and private self. And how the adult sees the world through the lens of that childhood drama, and it's sort of a story of a person whose rational picture of the world as being overwhelmed by her unconscious, and it uses the iconography of Marilyn Monroe."

He continued,

"It uses all the imagery that you have seen of Marilyn Monroe, the films, photographs of her life. But it changes the meaning of all those things in accordance with her internal drama. So it's sort of a movie about the unconscious in a way. And it's a tragedy. It's sort of like an unwanted child who becomes the most wanted woman in the world and has to deal with all of the desire that is directed at her, and how confusing that is. It's kind of a nightmare. It's about being in a car with no brakes. It's just going faster and faster and faster."

There are certain parts of the project that Dominik is keeping close to the vest, including the run-time of the finished film. When asked, he was quick to joke,

"Mate, that's like asking a woman her age."

Blonde will be on Netflix December 2022.

Tags
Marilyn monroe, Ana de Armas