Musician Billie Eilish is to star in a new adaptation of ‘The Bell Jar.’
Sarah Polley is writing and directing the movie.
Focus Features is in talks to produce and distribute.
Having already found success in movies thanks to her Oscar-winning music for ‘No Time to Die’ and ‘Barbie’, Billie Eilish is looking to follow other singer-songwriters to the screen and making her cinematic acting debut.
The only novel written by American writer and poet Plath, ‘The Bell Jar’ was originally published in 1963.
This semi-autobiographical work charts a young woman’s descent into mental illness and the burden of societal pressures. The book paralleled Plath’s own experiences with depression; the writer tragically died by suicide just a month after the novel’s first UK publication.
Who else has tried to film the novel?
Dakota Fanning stars in Paramount Pictures’ ‘Vicious.’
Since then, it has mostly been false starts: Julia Stiles was attached to star in a version in 2007 that ultimately didn’t come to pass. And Kirsten Dunst was attached to direct Dakota Fanning in the story a decade later but that also fell by the wayside. Showtime was reportedly developing a small screen take in 2019, but that hasn’t moved forward.
Sarah Polley backstage with the Oscar® for Adapted Screenplay during the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.
What do you do when you’re an indie darling who has recently won an Oscar for your latest, critically-praised drama? If you’re Sarah Polley, you accept a phone call from Disney asking if you’d want to make one of its animated-to-live-action movies.
At least, according to Deadline’s story, which is reporting that Polley is in the early stages of making a deal to handle ‘Bambi’ for the studio.
Polley is a somewhat surprising choice for a big Disney movie, given that the filmmaker, who got her start as an actor from a young age, is mostly known for producing documentaries and making the sensitive dramatic likes of ‘Away from Her’ and ‘Women Talking’, the latter of which won her the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy at this year’s Academy Awards.
Adapted from Felix Salten’s 1923 novel ‘Bambi, a Life in the Woods’, the original film, released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1942, became just the fifth animated feature ever to emerge from Disney’s studios.
It’s the coming-of-age story of the title character, the young deer struck by tragedy who counts amongst his woodland pals the rabbit Thumper and a skunk named Flower.
And famously, it helped to create the template for Disney movie characters losing parents, as the death of Bambi’s mother still resonates (and causes tears) to this day.
Disney, which has seen success turning its animated output into live-action (or in the case of 2019’s ‘The Lion King’ remake, photorealistic CGI), is ploughing ahead on more of the movies –– ‘The Little Mermaid’ is doing decent business at the box office right now and a new ‘Moana’ is on course to land in theaters on June 27th, 2025, starring Dwayne Johnson, who will reprise his role as demi-god Maui.
Dwayne Johnson announces live-action ‘Moana.’ Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
The studio has had ‘Bambi’ in its crosshairs since at least 2020, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (‘Captain Marvel’) and Lindsey Beer (‘Chaos Walking’) on board back then to write the script and Chris and Paul Weitz producing the film.
Since then, the Weitz brothers are still attached to produce but the scriptwriting duties have moved on to Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, who co-wrote Mr. Rogers drama ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’, but probably more pertinently have Disney experience working on ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’. Disney’s looking to keep the music level up too, as country star Kacey Musgraves is reportedly providing the tunes.
On limited release now before opening more widely in theaters on January 6th, ‘Women Talking’ represents fourth movie from actor and director Sarah Polley, and while it is certainly her stagiest effort, there are deep, dark and uncomfortable truths running through the script and an outstanding cast bringing those words to life.
‘Women Talking’ marks the second time that Polley has adapted someone else’s work, the first being 2006’s ‘Away from Her’. Here, she draws from Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel, itself written as a reaction to shocking true events that happened at the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia in 2011.
At the ultraconservative Mennonite community, girls and women woke up regularly to discover they had been sexually violated. The attacks were written off as “wild female imagination”, or else attributed to ghosts or the work of Satan.
In truth, a group of colony men had been spraying an animal anesthetic into neighboring houses at night, rendering everyone unconscious, and raping the women. The colony elders, deciding that the case was too difficult to handle themselves, called local police to take the perpetrators into custody.
The movie’s story unfolds shortly after the men have been taken away, with several of the remaining men heading into town to post bail for their fellows. A group of the colony’s women gather secretly to discuss what to do in the wake of the revelations. Their reactions run the gamut from fearful to furious, and the debate covers all manner of subjects, but is focused mainly on a vote as to whether they stay, fight or leave the community altogether.
None of the options are perfect––some argue that if they leave, their Mennonite religion (though the name is never mentioned) teaches that God won’t be able to find them and they’ll be denied their place in Heaven. Others are burning with the desire to exact revenge on the perpetrators. And some are concerned that leaving means the boys left behind will have no one to care for them and guide them into becoming more responsible men than some of those who have come before them.
Even if you haven’t read the book, the film’s title will leave you in no illusion as to what to expect. Though that might turn some off, expecting an exercise in dialogue and tone, the intellectual and spiritual fireworks between the main characters more than makes up for an assumed lack of forward movement.
This is, by its very nature, a painful and difficult film to watch––for women who will identify with the dilemmas, and for men who should gain further insight into the high wire than women everywhere must walk on a daily basis when confronted with terrible behavior towards them.
A film as dialogue driven as this one lives and dies on the quality and skill of its cast, and here, Polley’s latest has its greatest strength. An actor for years before she began to devote more of her time to directing, she has a real eye for talent and knows how to work with fellow performers.
For ‘Women Talking’, Polley (along with casting directors John Buchan and Jason Knight) have assembled an exemplary ensemble of actors of various ages and stages of their careers, one of the finest gathering of women on screen in many years.
While some, such as Mara, Foy and particularly McDormand, have been able to find roles that let them shine (with awards glory and nominations following), others are still breaking through, relegated to second string characters compared to their male counterparts. Even Foy, in movies such as ‘First Man’ had to make do with a less compelling wife role.
Here, there is no such restriction. The only real male character in the film is August (Ben Whishaw), whose family was excommunicated, but who has been allowed to return after securing an education in the outside world and teaching the boys (the young women are not considered worthy of lessons, even though the story is set in 2010).
Sweet-natured and thoughtful, he’s permitted to sit in so as to take the minutes of their meeting (one might argue that treating a secret gathering to decide urgent action like a council meeting to figure out a new pedestrian zone might seem unlikely, but the women are raised to be formal and all are detail-orientated.
Foy pulsates with anger as Salome, matched by Buckley’s Mariche, who is seen near the beginning attacking some of the men in custody with a scythe. She wants to see justice done––even if she must do it herself, but slowly starts to question her rage. Ivey as elder Agata, looks to remain calm, while McDormand’s Scarface Janz––who delivers monologues while rarely saying a word thanks to her expressions–– seethes and counsels.
The entire cast is, without exception, impressive, whether it is young victims wandering through fields, stunned at learning what really happened to them, to others giggling and scampering their way through the meeting, not really cognizant of the huge issues being debated. And, of course, the leads, feasting on Polley’s adaptation, render some of the best performances of the year.
There is a somewhat stage bound feeling to the whole affair, though the crackling interchanges between the women certainly help overcome the idea that this might have been better served as a play. Though the most significant action is a census taker driving through the community looking to count heads, the tone, by turns meditative and electric, is a feature, not a bug.
Polley is becoming a first-rate director, and here she truly has a cast to match. ‘Women Talking’ might be a tough watch, but it’s worth paying attention to.
Set in 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith after it is revealed that men from their community drugged and raped the women at night for years.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with actress Claire Foy about her work on ‘Women Talking,’ the subject matter, her character’s choice, working with the cast, and director Sarah Polley.
Claire Foy stars in director Sarah Polley’s ‘Women Talking.’
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Foy, Judith Ivy, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, and Kate Hallett.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the urgency of the situation your character finds herself in at the beginning of the film?
Claire Foy: The urgency is that these women have been subjected to quite a tragic circumstance. They’ve been sexually abused, and they’ve just discovered this. My character wants to seek revenge on the men who have committed the crimes. So, the men are sent away, and they’ve got 24 hours until the men come back to the colony, and they have to decide what they’re going to do.
So, these women who are in the hayloft have been put into the position of deciding for the entire community of women whether they will stay and fight, whether they will stay and do nothing, or whether they will leave. They’re on a time pressure. They’ve only got 24 hours. Also, it’s about them getting to decide what world they want to live in. They’ve been given a tragic set of circumstances, and they get to see what they do with that, I suppose.
MF: Did you agree with your character’s point of view and what were some of the challenges you faced as an actress playing this role?
CF: Yeah, I really did. I really identified with Salome’s approach to the position that she’s in. I think everybody did. I think, all the actors in the film really stood by and championed their character’s point of view, but I really did. I felt that it was a very appropriate reaction for what she’d endured, and what her daughter had endured.
There were lots of challenges in that. I think she is challenged in the film a lot. Her position is challenged as all the women’s are, and it’s about them all coming to a conclusion collectively as a unit about what they will do. That means that sometimes you have to change your mind.
MF: What was it like for you on set surrounded by this incredible cast of actresses?
CF: It was really extraordinary. I was very grateful every day to be there. I was just watching the most extraordinary work being produced and being really proud of seeing the performances that people were able to put in, and also how dedicated we all were to what we were making, and to Sarah, and to the story. It was an incredibly supportive, collaborative, amazing environment to be in.
MF: Finally, what was your experience like working with director Sarah Polley?
CF: Just the best. She’s incredibly compassionate. She’s so intelligent. She’s so open to learning, and she’s so self-aware. She’s incredibly generous with every single person on set. She believes everybody has a right to be involved in the film they’re making and have an opinion. She’s what a director should be and what a leader should be. She’s so good at setting an example and leading people.
