On Wednesday, 20 July, it was announced that Kirsten Dunst is set to make her directorial debut with a new adaptation of Sylvia Plath's only finished novel, The Bell Jar , starring Dakota Fanning in the lead role as Esther Greenwood. Since then, the news has gone viral which is not surprising in the least. In 2007, word spread that a film was in the works headlined by Julia Stiles and Tristine Skyler (screenplay), but unfortunately this project did not come to fruition. In fact, a blog post about the project was the second post ever here on the Sylvia Plath Info Blog. In May 2008, I posted a letter from Julia Stiles  herself on this blog about the project. We can and should lament that the Stiles/Skyler project never happened. I witnessed them conducting research at Smith College and provided information and resources when asked. So I know first-hand the lengths to which they went in creating a screenplay that would honor Plath herself and the work she did in writing The Bell ...

In a New York Times article " Next Big Thing for the Last Big Thing " by Matthew Healey, Julia Stiles provides an update and insight into her forthcoming screen adaptation of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar .

The following is a letter from Julia Stiles to Carol Christ, the President of Smith College, regarding the adaptation of The Bell Jar on which she is currently working. Ms. Stiles asked me to post it here as it also addresses Plath's readers. May 1, 2008 Dear President Carol Christ, It was a privilege attending last weekend's 75th anniversary Symposium on Sylvia Plath at Smith College, and I wanted to thank you for the invaluable resources made available by your colleagues. Joining me at the conference was a screenwriter I have been working with for the past three years to adapt The Bell Jar into a film. Karen Kukil and Aubrey Menard, who hosted the event, were extremely generous with their time, showing us scores of photos, early drafts of The Bell Jar, Plath's typewriter, and a number of other artifacts in Smith's impressive archives. While at dinner Saturday evening in The Alumnae House, a fourth year student asked me if we were planning to make a "happy, ligh...

The wrap up for last week was pretty exciting, culminating of course with the Sylvia Plath 75th Anniversary Symposium at Smith College on Friday and Saturday. Yes, Julia Stiles and Tristine Skylar were present, in part to enjoy the very good papers, and in part to do research for their forthcoming film adaptation of Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar . Plath's friends Marcia Brown Stern, Elinor Friedman Klein, and Phil McCurdy were present, as well as author's of critical and biographical works of Plath including Lynda K. Bundtzen, Susan van Dyne, Langdon Hammer, Judith Kroll, Karen Kukil, Richard Larschan, myself, and other. A fuller review of the events will be online later this week. The Bell Jar makes the Telegraph's list of the top 50 Cult Books! Thank you VC. Today, 27 April, also marks the first anniversary of this blog. Happy Anniversary. Thank you to all the lurkers. Thank you to those who have left comments. And thank you to those who have, in either emai...

The following article appeared today on www.mtv.com... "The Bell Jar" tolls for Julia Stiles by Shawn Adler She’s trapsed the globe with super-spy Jason Bourne, but Julia Stiles’ greatest journey is the one she’ll soon be making inside her own head, the 26-year-old told MTV News, as she gears up to play Esther Greenwood in the film adaptation of the classic Slyvia Plath novel “The Bell Jar.” Sometimes described by readers as a “female ‘Catcher in the Rye,’” “The Bell Jar” follows Greenwood as she experiences massive, clinical melancholia, through commitment to a mental hospital, electroshock therapy, and several suicide attempts. Ask most casual students of English literature and they’ll tell you “The Bell Jar” is one thing above all – effing depressing. “I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s depressing at all. It is ABOUT depression,” Stiles argued. “But I think that Sylvia Plath writes with such awesome, beautiful, vivid imagery that is so perfect for film, that it’s kind ...

from Reuters, Wednesday 25 April 2007: Sylvia Plath novel rings "Bell" for Stiles By Gregg Goldstein NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Julia Stiles will star in and produce an adaptation of Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar." The actress and her representatives at Creative Artists Agency spent two years optioning rights to the coveted project from French producers StudioCanal, and closed the deal Friday. The 1950s-era drama centers on young book editor Esther Greenwood (Stiles), who grows troubled by the social trappings of her time and slowly descends into mental illness.Principal photography is tentatively expected to begin in early 2008. Also producing are indie firms Plum Pictures and Killer Films. A 1979 version starred Marilyn Hassett. Since then, rights to the only novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (published around the time of her suicide in 1963) have been held by several parties. Gwyneth Paltrow starred in a 2003 biopic of Plath...