Jessica Chastain will play Marilyn Monroe in a biopic aimed at reimagining the "inner, poetic and spiritual life" of the Hollywood icon, reports The Wrap.

The two-time Oscar nominee is said to be close to a deal to star in Blonde, based on the Pulitzer prize final-making novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. The project was first announced in 2010, when Naomi Watts was expected to star.

Australian film-maker Andrew Dominik, best known for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, is still in line to direct. He described the project as a "really sprawling, emotional nightmare fairy-tale type movie … about an abandoned orphan who gets lost in the woods", in conversation with The Playlist blog at Cannes in 2012.

Oates's 700-page novel, published in 2000, deals with many of Monroe's famous relationships, including US president John F Kennedy. Many of her paramours are unnamed, but are clearly identified by the actor's nicknames for them and the context in which she discusses them. Hence, a male star of Some Like It Hot is labelled "C" (presumably Tony Curtis) and Monroe's husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller feature as "the ex-Athlete" and "the Playright" respectively. The book was previously adapted for a 2001 miniseries on the US CBS network.

Chastain, a natural redhead, played a ditzy yet spirited blonde in the period drama The Help, for which she received a best supporting actress Oscars nod in 2011. Her other Academy nomination was for 2012's Zero Dark Thirty.

Blonde is expected to start shooting in August.