Marilyn Monroe film to debut at NY fest

My Week With Marilyn,starring American actress Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 9.

Directed by Simon Curtis, the film will be the centerpiece gala at the festival, which runs Sept. 30 to Oct. 16.

My Week With Marilyn is based on the diaries of British filmmaker Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), who was an assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl shot in Britain in 1956.

Monroe, who had recently married playwright Arthur Miller at the time, appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in the film.

When Millerleft England, the 23-year-old Clark escorted Monroe around during an idyllic week that offered a break from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work. Clark wrote about the time inhis book My Week With Marilyn.

"After seeing Marilyn Monroe so often portrayed in films as a caricature, it is a pleasure to see this complex personality and unique on-screen presence portrayed so well by such a talented actress as Michelle Williams," Richard Pena, chair of the NYFF selection committee, said in a statement.

Williams tackled the role of the Hollywood icon after being celebrated for her role as an embattled wife in 2010's Blue Valentine.

The New York festival's centerpiece slot is often given to a potential awards contender, such as Pedro Almodovar's Volver in 2006, which later earned an Oscar nomination for Penelope Cruz.

My Week with Marilyn is set for theatrical release Nov. 4.

Festival opener

The New York festival will open with Roman Polanski's Carnage.

Based on Yasmina Reza's Tony-winning play God of Carnage, the film has its world premiere in Venice.

However, the story about two Brooklyn couples brought together after their children are involved in a playground fight was chosen as the opening selection bothbecause of its New York setting and Polanski's track record as a filmmaker, Pena said.

The festival will also feature a retrospective of the films of Japan's Nikkatsu Corp. movie studio andscreenings of restored prints of Ben-Hur andWe Can't Go Home Again.