Billie Eilish is in talks to make her feature film debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Path’s beloved 1963 novel The Bell Jar, according to industry newsletter InSneider. The screenplay is being written by onetime actress Sarah Polley, who won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the script to 2022’s Women Talking.
Per the report, The Bell Jar will be produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and StudioCanal, with distribution from Focus Features. The book chronicles the declining mental health of a 1950s-era female college student working at a women’s magazine and then returning to her New England hometown.
It was previously made into a maligned 1979 film starring Marilyn Hassett and Julie Harris, which was savaged by contemporary critics. The original novel was published one month before Plath committed suicide.
Eilish previously acted in the 2023 Prime Video series Swarm, appeared as herself on Sesame Street and hosted Saturday Night Live in 2021. That same year, she released both the concert film A Love Letter to Los Angeles and the documentary The World’s a Little Blurry. Eilish has also won Academy Awards for her contributions to the Barbie and No Time To Die soundtracks.
As previously reported, she stars and co-directs (with James Cameron) the concert film HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D), which will be released May 8 by Paramount, Darkroom Records, Interscope Films and Lightstorm Entertainment.
