Currently in production in Toronto, we now know the identity of who will play Mrs. Greenwood in the longest gestating feature film adaptation for Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar directed by Sarah Polley. Variety reports that Carey Mulligan joins Billie Eilish in what will be a weighty award-friendly project for the Focus Features (who have had several films with Mulligan at the forefront) folks in autumn of 2027. Also worthy of note is that Connor Storrie looks to have secured a smaller role in the film. As far back as Henry Jaglom in the 70s, the likes of Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst kicked the tires on the project. Polley last directed Women Talking (read review).
This follows Esther Greenwood, a brilliant and ambitious young woman in 1950s America who appears to have everything ahead of her. After winning a prestigious internship at a New York fashion magazine, Esther enters a glamorous world of writers, editors, parties, and possibility, but the experience leaves her increasingly alienated as she struggles with expectations placed on women, questions about marriage and motherhood, and uncertainty about her own creative ambitions. Returning home to Massachusetts, Esther’s growing sense of isolation deepens. She finds herself unable to write, sleep, or connect with the life she once imagined for herself. As her depression intensifies, she experiences a profound psychological breakdown and attempts to take her own life. Following this crisis, Esther enters psychiatric treatment, where she undergoes controversial methods of care before finding a more compassionate path toward recovery.
The Bell Jar is produced by Joy Gorman Wettels, Plan B Entertainment and StudioCanal.
