{"id":530508,"date":"2026-03-12T03:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:04:12","slug":"billie-eilish-to-star-the-bell-jar-adaptation-for-sarah-polley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530508\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Eilish to Star ‘The Bell Jar’ Adaptation for Sarah Polley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billie Eilish<\/a> already has two Oscars, each for Best Original Song<\/a>, but this one feels like a project that one day could have her in a Best Actress conversation.<\/p>\n

Eilish is attached to make her feature acting debut in an adaptation of \u201cThe Bell Jar<\/a>,\u201d the Sylvia Plath semi-autobiographical novel from 1963, which will be directed by another Oscar winner, Sarah Polley<\/a>, IndieWire has learned. Focus Features<\/a> is in talks to acquire the package. <\/p>\n

Polley is writing and directing, and this is her first film<\/a> since 2023, when she won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for \u201cWomen Talking<\/a>.\u201d Joy Gorman Wettels (\u201cLittle House on the Prairie,\u201d \u201c13 Reasons Why\u201d), who originated the project through her company Joy Coalition, is producing the film along with Plan B Entertainment and StudioCanal.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a> \"Ted<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bell Jar\u201d was written by the American poet and is considered semi-autobiographical as Plath died of suicide a month after the book was published after suffering from clinical depression. The book follows 19-year-old Esther Greenwood as she struggles with a descent into mental illness. The book was adapted for the screen in 1979 as directed by Larry Peerce, and other stars have tried to bring it to the screen, with Julia Stiles, Rose McGowan, Kirsten Dunst, and Dakota Fanning all at one point involved in various iterations that never took off.<\/p>\n

Eilish has acted once before, though not in a film, and not in a lead role. She starred in a 2023 episode of the Amazon series \u201cSwarm.\u201d<\/a> She\u2019ll be seen in a documentary concert film later this summer that she co-directed with James Cameron and that was shot in 3D. <\/p>\n

For Polley, this will be her fifth feature as a director in a career that also includes \u201cAway From Her,\u201d \u201cTake This Waltz,\u201d and \u201cStories We Tell.\u201d She also was most recently the \u201cdirector\u201d of a film in an episode of \u201cThe Studio\u201d in which she tried and failed to successfully get a \u201coner\u201d shot<\/a> but kept having Seth Rogen\u2019s studio head getting in her way. <\/p>\n

Eilish is represented by WME, Sandbox Entertainment, and High Rise PR. Polley is represented by WME, GGA, and Circle Management. Gorman Wettels is repped by Nina Shaw at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang.<\/p>\n

Deadline first reported the news that Focus was boarding the project. The InSneider first reported Eilish\u2019s involvement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billie Eilish already has two Oscars, each for Best Original Song, but this one feels like a project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10052,49,48,75,1554,12445,341,208058,208059],"class_list":["post-530508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-billie-eilish","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-focus-features","tag-music","tag-sarah-polley","tag-the-bell-jar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}