Kirsten Dunst Lines Up 'The Bell Jar' as Directorial Debut

Kirsten Dunst at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Fresh off her triumphant Emmy-nominated turn in the second season of FX’s TV series Fargo, Kirsten Dunst is returning to the big screen for her next project, which will put her behind the camera for her directorial debut.

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As reported by Deadline, Dunst is confirmed to make her directorial debut with The Bell Jar, an adaptation of the sole novel written by poet Sylvia Plath. The 1963 book, about a young 1950s woman’s descent into mental illness, has long been regarded as a semi-autobiographical tome, and for her cinematic version, Dunst has cast Dakota Fanning as protagonist Esther Greenwood, a young Massachusetts woman who ventures to New York City to intern for the summer at a well-known magazine, and then returns home to suffer one disappointment after another before slowly falling victim to depression.

The Bell Jar was previously turned into a film in 1979 courtesy of director Larry Peerce and star Marilyn Hassett. Dunst’s version, which she co-wrote with Nellie Kim, will go into production early next year. While it’ll be her first feature film as a director, she has helmed two shorts (Welcome with Winona Ryder and John Hawks; Bastard with Brian Geraghty and Lukas Haas) that played at various domestic and international festivals.

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Before she brings The Bell Jar to theaters, Dunst, who earlier this year starred in Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special, will be seen in Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Woodshock, as well as in her The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette collaborator Sofia Coppola’s forthcoming remake of The Beguiled (also starring Fanning).

Kirsten Dunst flashback: Watch the trailer for ‘The Two Faces of January’: