Naomi Watts is set to portray film icon Marilyn Monroe

Naomi Watts Gossips: Hollywood Hot Actress Naomi Watts to play icon Marilyn Monroe in a new movie based on the controversial Joyce Carol Oates novel Blonde, producers announced at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Oscar-nominated Watts, 41, will begin shooting the film in January.

She is currently featured in two films at Cannes: Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger and Fair Game, based on the story of former CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film will explore how Monroe rose from humble origins as Norma Jeane Baker to her transformation into the Hollywood sexpot and screen siren Marilyn Monroe.

"Why is Marilyn Monroe the great female icon of the 20th century?" Dominik asked.

"For men, she is an object of sexual desire who is desperately in need of rescue. For women, she embodies all the injustices visited upon the feminine.

"I want to tell the story of Norma Jeane as a central figure in a fairy-tale; an orphan child lost in the woods of Hollywood, being consumed by that great icon."

Released in 2000, Blonde was a fictionalized account of Monroe's life by bestselling author Oates, who sparked controversy with salacious scenes about Monroe's sex life.

The real-life men with whom Monroe was associated — including sports hero Joe DiMaggio, writer Arthur Miller and former president John F. Kennedy — are referred to by nicknames (The Ex-Athlete, the Playwright and the President, respectively).

The news about Blonde follows the recent announcement of another Marilyn Monroe project from the Weinstein Company moving forward and slated to begin filming in September.

Michelle Williams, also an Oscar-nominee, is set to portray Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, which focuses specifically on her time spent filming 1957's The Prince and The Showgirl — opposite Laurence Olivier — in London.