Netflix has just made its first ever adults-only movie

Rory Cashin

Blonde: Netflix's first adult-only movie

We imagine this movie is going to get A LOT of people talking…

Believe it or not, it has only been seven years since Netflix began making its own original movies. It kicked off in 2015 with Beasts Of No Nation and ever since then, it has managed to create a very eclectic menu for itself, from Oscar-hopefuls to huge blockbusters to family-friendly fare.

However, Netflix’s first-ever adult-only movie finally looks set to be made available to subscribers sometime in 2022, according to reports.

Blonde has been rated NC-17 in the States – the equivalent to an 18s certificate in the UK – for its sexual content, making it the first-ever Netflix movie to receive that certification.

The movie tells a fictionalised version of the life of Marilyn Monroe, here played by Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time To Die), and she’ll be joined on screen by Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Succession), Bobby Cannavale (Spy, Boardwalk Empire) and Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown, Masters of Sex).

Blonde: Ana de Armas Marilyn Monroe film

Written and directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James, Killing Them Softly), it is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, which focuses on several of the more high profile “stories” from Monroe’s life, including her traumatic childhood, her affair with President John F. Kennedy and the rumours that her death was actually a murder.

The movie was filmed all the way back in 2019, with reports stating that Netflix has continually delayed the movie’s release as they deemed it to be “too graphic”.

Oates has commented on a rough cut of the movie, stating that: “I have seen the rough cut of Andrew Dominik’s adaptation and it is startling, brilliant, very disturbing and perhaps most surprisingly an utterly ‘feminist’ interpretation… not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything [like] this.”

Additionally, Jamie Lee Curtis – who starred alongside Ana de Armas in Knives Out, and whose father Tony Curtis starred alongside Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot – had nothing but incredible things to say about De Armas’ performance: “I dropped to the floor. I couldn’t believe it. Ana was completely gone. She was Marilyn.”

There is currently no set release date for Blonde but Dominik has said he hopes his long-laboured project and Netflix’s first adult-only moviewill debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year.