Andrew Dominik Evidently Won't Be Making The Marilyn Monroe Quasi-Biopic, 'Blonde'

Having directed two feature-length classics and one of them being a masterpiece of this decade ('The Assassination of Jesse James,' the other film is "Chopper," which illustrated a completely transformed Eric Bana) we're distinctly on team Andrew Dominik, the New Zealand-born emerging auteur behind these efforts (he's essentially Australian).

However, one project he won't be doing next is evidently a Marilyn Monroe quasi-biopic. Most of us didn't even know this was in the works, but according to the New York Times:

One Monroe project with star interest hit a snag when writer-director Andrew Dominik adapted Joyce Carol Oates' Monroe-inspired novel "Blonde" on spec before acquiring film rights. It remains in limbo.

No other details are given, but it's chances sound rather bleak, especially given the fact what an icon she is and the several estates and cooks that must be involved, not to mention the author herself as "Blonde" is a piece of fiction (but rooted in reality, with names changed —husband Joe DiMaggio is referred to as "The Ex-Athlete," Arthur Miller as "The Playwright," John F. Kennedy as "The President").

Was Dominik planning on directing this too? Given that it was written on spec (not an assignment you're getting paid for) it sounds like a labor of love and a strong possibility, but either way it sounds like it's dead in the water.

So what's next for Dominik then? Well, he had planned on an adaptation of "Cities of the Plain," the final volume of Cormac McCarthy's "The Border Trilogy," that's said to be set for a 2012 release date, but as of January 2008 he said the project was scrapped.

"I came closest on was a Cormac McCarthy book called Cities of the Plain, which is the third part of the Border Trilogy, which had strikes against it for that reason. All the Pretty Horses was not a beloved movie [laughs], and making a sequel to a film that had flopped was not one that was hugely appealing. And then the fact that I did not want to cast any movie stars in the film just made it all fall apart."

But of course, that's before the Coen Brothers won an Oscar for their adaptation of "No Country For Old Men," won multiple Oscars in 2008, including Best Picture (and then McCarthy adaptations were seemingly all the rage).

In August of 2008, the L.A. Times said Dominik was still hoping to bring the movie to the screen, but it was nothing more than a mention of his intentions in a piece about Cormac Mcarthy film adaptations and brought nothing new to the table. If this project was officially announced in the trades for 2012, it looks like it has been lost in the annals of Google.

Though he's not anywhere credited on the screenplay for "The Killer Inside Me," Michael Winterbottom's upcoming 2010 film about a boring small-town cop who spirals into a ruthless, sociopathic murderer, Dominik evidently adapted it in 2003. We don't care what's next: just let this man direct another movie and soon.