Patricia Arquette, Bel Powley join Sylvia Plath adaptation “The Bell Jar”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Patricia Arquette, Bel Powley, and Stacy Martin have joined Dakota Fanning and Jesse Plemons in the movie adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” which will be Kirsten Dunst’s directorial debut.

Cornerstone Films has launched foreign sales at the American Film Market. The film is going into production in early 2017.

Fanning is playing the lead role of Esther Greenwood in the film, based on Plath’s 1963 novel. Plemons will portray the Lenny Shepherd character.

Dunst has adapted the script with Nellie Kim.

Priority Pictures optioned remake rights from Studio Canal. “The Bell Jar” was made into a feature film in 1979.

Priority’s Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little will produce alongside Fanning and Echo Lake Entertainment’s Brittany Kahan. Celine Rattray and Dunst are executive producing.

In the book, Greenwood takes an internship at a magazine in New York City, and then begins to suffer a mental breakdown when she returns home to Boston. The novel is the only book ever published by Plath, who committed suicide in 1963.

Arquette won the a supporting actress Oscar for “Boyhood.” Powley starred in “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and Martin starred in “Nymphomaniac.”

Arquette is represented by the Gersh Agency and 3 Arts Entertainment. Powley is repped by UTA, The BWH Agency and Authentic Talent and Literary Management. Martin is repped by WME, 42 West, and Greg Slewett as her attorney.