Andrew Dominik’s Ana de Armas-Starring Marilyn Monroe Biopic ‘Blonde’ Moved to 2022

Kristen Lopez
·2 min read
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If you were hoping to watch Cuban actress Ana de Armas take on the mantle of Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” we hate to be the bearer of bad news. The Netflix biopic, based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel of the same name, will not be released this year.

The news, originally reported in Variety, now says that the Dominik-directed and scripted biopic will be released sometime in 2022.

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Rumblings about the movie’s released date being moved have been louder of late, in spite of the movie being briefly seen in a promotional video from Netflix this year, wherein the streamer touted releasing a new movie every week in 2021. Back in June, Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux said that Netflix had turned down an out of competition slot for the feature. Frémaux said about the film, “Andrew Dominik’s film [‘Blonde’] could have been ready — it’s beautiful, I saw it.”

Dominik himself, the man behind elegiac dramas like “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford,” has described the feature as “a really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie.” De Armas stars opposite Julianne Nicholson, and Bobby Cannavale as a character based on Joe DiMaggio, Adrian Brody as a character inspired by playwright Arthur Miller. Xavier Samuel and Garret Dillahunt round out the cast.

The feature will tell a fictionalized story of Marilyn Monroe’s life with the focus on her relationships with her various husbands and lovers. The film has been a hot property in Hollywood for decades, with both Naomi Watts and Jessica Chastain, fresh off her Monroe-esque role in “The Help,” attached for significant amounts of time before de Armas took up the role.

Oates’ book, originally published in 1999, was adapted as a made-for-TV movie in 2001, airing on CBS. Poppy Montgomery played the Marilyn character, with Titus Welliver as DiMaggio, Griffin Dunne as Arthur Miller, and Ann-Margret.

Marilyn Monroe as a character has had her life adapted in numerous films and television movies over the decades with actresses like Michelle Williams, Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino, and Kelli Garner all donning the platinum tresses of the actress, who died of an overdose in 1962. Williams’ portrayal of Monroe in 2011’s “My Week With Marilyn” garnered her an Oscar nomination.

There is currently no word on when in 2022 “Blonde” will be released.

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