Julia Stiles is taking on Sylvia Plath, according to Variety. The actress will produce and star in The Bell Jar, the semi-autobiographical novel by the late poet Plath. Playwright and screenwriter Tristine Skyler will adapt.

The Bell Jar is about a young reporter who seeks to make a name for herself in New York but spirals into depression and moves back to Boston.

Variety indicates that the novel is regarded as a veiled account of Plath's own life. Stiles will play Esther Greenwood; no other cast has yet been attached.

The book had previously been brought to the big screen in 1979 and starred Julie Harris and was directed by Larry Peerce but was regarded as a box office disappointment.

Stiles had been seeking to bring a new version to the screen for several years.