Kristen Stewart is all set to star in the biopic based on the life of writer, philosopher, and political activist Susan Sontag. The film will be based on the biography Sontag: Her Life and Work by Ben Moser.
Stewart, who has portrayed strong and influential women in the past as well, will be stepping into the shoes of the queer feminist icon, famous for her novels and cultural essays. Continue reading to know more about the project.
Kristen Stewart to Star in Susan Sontag’s Biopic
The film has the working title of Sontag and will be helmed by documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson. The screenplay has been written by Johnson along with Lisa Kron. The filming is scheduled to begin at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, where Stewart serves as president of the international jury.
The production crew will eventually also shoot in Paris, California, New York, and Sarajevo. Sontag will also have a meta twist as it will feature Stewart discussing the role in documentary-like footage before the author’s life events begin to unfold on screen. Brouhaha Entertainment, a UK-Australia-based company, is producing the film.
Talking about the project, Gabrielle Tana, co-founder of Brouhaha Entertainment, said, “We’re using Berlin as a moment to kick off the project and do documentary footage of Kristen as the head of the jury and talking to her about how she’s going to become Sontag.”
“It will be a drama, but with a documentary aspect to it. Kirsten has a wonderful approach to storytelling, and this is reflective of that, so she will use documentary in it,” she added. The producers also include Troy Lum and Andrew Mason.
Susan Sontag was a Human Rights and Social Justice Activist
Sontag was an acclaimed author and activist who expressed complex ideas pertaining to human rights and social justice in her essays and novels. Her influential works include the books Against Interpretation, Illness As Metaphor and On Photography, and the fictional novel In America.
She also visited war-torn areas of Vietnam and Sarajevo and extensively covered the conflicts. Her commentary on the Vietnam War and the AIDS epidemic also sparked controversy. After a prolific career, she died at the age of 71 in 2004.
Stewart Starred in Two Major Biopics in Recent Years
The 32 year old actress previously played actress Jean Seberg in the 2019 film Seberg. In 2021, she starred as Princess Diana in Spencer and landed her first Oscar nomination. She also displayed her range with the sci-fi film Crimes of the Future, the lesbian rom-com Happiest Season, and the action-horror Underwater.
As for Kirsten Johnson, the filmmaker started her career as a documentary cinematographer and worked on some noteworthy projects, including Citizenfour, which featured Edward Snowden’s story, and Darfur Now.
She went on to direct the autobiographical documentary Cameraperson in 2016, and the critically acclaimed Dick Johnson is Dead in 2020, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Sundance special jury award. Sontag will mark her feature film directorial debut.
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