MARILYN MONROE BIOPICS COMPETING FOR YOUR BLONDE BOMBSHELL-LOVING ATTENTION
Hollywood has a long history of dueling projects, as competing producers race with each other to see who can get their project out first. This has even happened within the field of biopics, such as with Truman Capote (Capote vs Infamous), and the various continuing attempts to make movies based on the lives of Janis Joplin, Linda Lovelace and Jimi Hendrix. This week at Cannes, two different Marilyn Monroe biopics were announced, and both plan to start filming in the next several months. Naomi Watts will star in Blonde, an adaptation of the imaginary Monroe memoir by Joyce Carol Oates. Blonde will be directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Filming of Blonde is scheudled to start in January, 2011 on a budget of $20 million. The Weinstein Company might get the jump on Blonde, however, as they plan on filming My Week With Marilyn in late September. Michelle Williams will play Marilyn in this story about the time Monroe spent in England filming The Prince and the Showgirl opposite Laurence Olivier. Scarlett Johansson had at one time been in talks to star before Williams signed on. My Summer with Marilyn will be the first feature film for British director Simon Curtis, who has worked mostly on TV projects like David Copperfield.