Kirsten Dunst To Direct Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar' Starring Dakota Fanning

Kirsten Dunst Two Faces of January costumes

(Image credit: Rex)

Congrats Kirsten

Congratulations are in order for Kirsten Dunst as she is set to make her feature film directorial debut with Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, The Bell Jar.

The film, which is slated to start production in 2017, has some stellar names attached both on screen and off, with Dakota Fanning set to play the lead role of Esther Greenwood in the 1950’s set, semi-autobiographical novel.

Not content with directing the hotly anticipated film, Kirsten has also co-written the script along with Nellie Kim, making this film one of her biggest projects to date.

Whilst this is the star’s first foray into directing feature films, Kristen was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the black-comedy series, Fargo, and has just directed a pair of critically-acclaimed short films: Welcome, starring Winona Ryder and John Hawkes, which was screened at Sundance; and Bastard starring Brian Geraghty and Lukas Haas which screened at Tribeca and Cannes. So yeah, she’s pretty busy RN.

After nearly two decades in front of the camera (she began her acting career aged eight in Woody Allen's short film Oedipus Wrecks), Kristen has remained relatively tight-lipped about her move behind the camera.

‘I might be doing that next year,’ reported Page Six earlier in the year. ‘We're in the rewrite phase of the script and we have an actress. It's almost all together, but I can't fully talk about it yet.’ But looks like the secret is out and we can’t wait to see the results, seeing as The Bell Jar is one of the Marie Claire’s team favourite novels and one book that you have to read at least once in your life.

For the uninitiated, the book, which was Sylvia Plath’s only published novel, is a sombre coming of age story, which follows the books protagonist, Esther Greenwood’s descent into mental illness and has often been cited as one of the most important books in the modern literary canon.

Holly Rains is the digital editor of Marie Claire UK. She has over 10 years journalism experience, working as an editor and writer, specialising in digital media, content strategy and dog breeds. Prior to Marie Claire, she has held senior staff positions at ELLE UK, Grazia and Company magazine.

Holly is a frequent speaker, panelist and interviewer on a range of subjects including media trends, careers and entertainment. From working with Reuters to provide global red carpet coverage for events like the BAFTAs, to discussing fashion and beauty trends on network TV, she was also the host of the Marie Claire series ‘Holly’s First Dates’, where she regularly interviewed a mix of inspiring woman and A-list celebrities (including Jack Black, Dakota Fanning and Renée Zellweger) - a series which garnered half a million views in its first two months. And was approved by The Rock.

Her love of office-based meetings means that the days of discovering the melting point of Cadbury's Flakes are long gone, but when she isn't dreaming of scheduling in meetings, she likes to think about social media, and how best to avoid it whilst still retaining the title of 'digital' editor. She also likes learning about emerging technology, Influencers and how to become a Financially Responsible Adult.

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