It's been four years since we last saw Andrew Dominik, the talented filmmaker behind Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, with 2012's furious, imperfect Killing Them Softly. In the five years between 2007's Jesse James and Killing Them Softly, Dominik was shopping around Blonde, a biopic of Marilyn Monroe based on Joyce Carol Oates' beloved tome of the same name. First, Naomi Watts was on board as the tragic, brilliant actress. Then, after Watts was forced to drop out of the project, Jessica Chastain was set to star, having already proven capable of pulling off a blonde bob in The Help. Then Chastain also had to drop out and the film looked like it wasn't going to happen at all, until rumors started floating around town that Netflix was interested in backing Dominik's biopic of the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star.

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Image via Warner Bros.

Well, that's no longer a rumor. As The Film Stage report this morning, a recent interview between Dominik and Anne Thompson at Indiwire concluded with the director confirming that Blonde will be his next film and that Netflix will indeed be footing the bill with plans to release it in theaters in a limited run and on the streaming service in the near future.  Apparently he's already cast someone in the role, but won't announce who his star is quite yet; he says that he's booked the mystery performer for January.


For the time being, Dominik is stumping for his new documentary, One More Time With Feeling, his chronicle of Nick Cave making his new record, Skeleton Tree, with The Bad Seeds in the wake of the tragic death of his son. That film just enjoyed a premiere at the Venice Film Festival and looks to be one of the major releases of the fall, as it will hit theaters for an extremely limited engagement along with the release of Skeleton Tree. One might very well expect Blonde to similarly cover the aftermath of death, but we're going to be waiting awhile before we know anything concrete about what Dominik is planning, unfortunately.

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Image via 20th Century Fox
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Image via The Weinstein Company

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Image via Picturehouse