We imagine this movie is going to get A LOT of people talking...
Believe it or not, it has only been seven years since Netflix began making its own original movies. It kicked off in 2015 with Beasts Of No Nation, and ever since then, it has managed to create a very eclectic menu for itself, from Oscar-hopefuls to huge blockbusters to family-friendly fare.
But 2022 will see the streaming service provide its first ever movie that is intended for adults only.
Blonde has been rated NC-17 in the States - the equivalent to an 18s certificate in Ireland - for its sexual content, making it the first ever Netflix movie to receive that certification.
The movie tells a fictionalised version of the life of Marilyn Monroe, here played by Ana De Armas (Knives Out, No Time To Die), and she'll be joined on screen by Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Succession), Bobby Cannavale (Spy, Boardwalk Empire) and Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown, Masters of Sex).
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly), it is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, which focuses on several of the more high profile "stories" from Monroes life, including her traumatic childhood, her affair with President John F. Kennedy and the rumours that her death was actually a murder.
The movie was filmed back in 2019, with
reports stating that Netflix have continuously delayed the movie's release as they deemed it to be "too graphic".
Oates has commented on a rough cut of the movie,
stating that: "I have seen the rough cut of Andrew Dominik's adaptation and it is startling, brilliant, very disturbing and perhaps most surprisingly an utterly 'feminist' interpretation... not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything [like] this."
Additionally, Jamie Lee Curtis - who starred alongside Ana De Armas in Knives Out, and whose father Tony Curtis starred alongside Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot - had nothing but
incredible things to say about De Armas' performance: "I dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe it. Ana was completely gone. She was Marilyn."
There is currently no set release date for Blonde, but Dominik has said he hopes the movie will debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
