Kirsten Dunst Co-wrote And Made Her Directorial Debut With The Bell Jar

Kirsten Dunst is stepping behind the camera to direct Dakota Fanning in a new movie adaptation of The Bell Jar. The Spider-Man actress will make her feature film directorial debut with the remake, based on Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographical 1963 novel of the same name, which is set in the 1950s. Fanning will tackle the role of Esther in the reboot, which Dunst co-wrote with Nellie Kim, reports Deadline.com.

"I might be doing that next year," Dunst said. "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," she added. Set in the 1950s, the semi-autobiographical story follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman from the Boston suburbs who becomes mentally unstable during a summer internship with a magazine in New York City. Much of the novel paralleled the life of Plath, who committed suicide shortly after publication.

Dunst has some previous directorial experience in the short film category, having made 2007’s Welcome, which screened at Sundance and starred Winona Ryder, and 2010’s Bastard, which screened at both Cannes and Tribeca. Her most recent movie role came in Midnight Special, alongside Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton and Adam Driver. Production is slated to begin early 2017 with a release to follow later in the year.

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