Marilyn Monroe would’ve been 100 years old this summer, and she’s still inspiring big-screen projects.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is heading to the Venice Film Festival this September where she will serve as jury president and debut a 17-minute short film called Flesh Impact starring both Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn as versions of the iconic Hollywood star.

The milestone birthday is no coincidence as the project was created to honor the moment and was done “with the blessings” of Monroe estate holders Authentic Brands Group. Described in official press materials as “a love letter to one of cinema’s most enduring icons,” Flesh Impact casts Johnson as Monroe at the height of her fame while Burstyn stars as an imagined version of Monroe later in life. (Monroe was 36 when she died on Aug. 4, 1962.) Peter Sarsgaard and The Pitt star Sepideh Moafi round out the cast.

The film is produced by William Green for The Cut, Michelle Ross for Superprime, Nicolette Spencer and Melissa Moore for INNOCEAN, and is presented by automotive brand Genesis. Maddi Carlton, Brandon Boerner, Rebecca Skinner, David Webb and Courtney Kivowitz serve as executive producers.

“I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe. So, when Genesis first came to me with the idea of a celebratory project for her centennial, I knew I wanted to work together on bringing this story to life,” Gyllenhaal said in a statement. “With Flesh Impact, we showcase the timeless icon we know and love through a modern lens that reclaims her story.”

Gyllenhaal’s creative team also included production designer Karen Murphy (Elvis), casting director Mary Vernieu (The Last of Us), costume designer Jennifer Johnson (Bugonia), editor Affonso Gonçalves (Hamnet) and director of photography Lawrence Sher (The Bride).

“At Genesis, we believe the arts have a unique ability to inspire reflection, spark meaningful conversation, and connect people through stories that endure across generations,” said Amy Marentic, chief marketing officer at Genesis Motor America. “Our support of this film honoring Marilyn Monroe reflects our commitment to celebrating cultural icons whose influence extends far beyond their time.”

The full Venice Film Festival lineup can be found here. Burstyn has other official business at the festival: She stars in Kornel Mundruczo’s out of competition title Place to Be and has been plucked to receive a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

The first look at Flesh Impact was first reported by Vanity Fair. “This film is very much a mixture of Marilyn and my fantasy of her,” Gyllenhaal told the magazine’s Rebecca Ford. “In a lot of ways, this movie is about Marilyn and also about actresses in general and what it’s like to have that strange, very vulnerable, and, at the same time, very powerful job.”

Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has revealed that he had to sell his house at the time because he didn’t make enough money.

During a recent interview with The Guardian, Astin, who now serves as the national president of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, opened up about finding fame in the early 2000s when the Peter Jackson-directed film franchise became a global phenomenon, grossing $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office.

“I was not prepared for that level of visibility and access,” Astin admitted. “And there was a disconnect between the attention that I was getting and how much money we had. It was not a lot of money!”

“In fact, I had to sell my house because I negotiated such a small amount on the trilogy,” the actor added. He previously shared on the Jim and Sam Show in 2017 that he earned “$75,000 a movie,” which would make his salary for the whole trilogy around $250,000.

Despite becoming one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins, told Business Insider last year that the production company New Line Cinema took “a real gamble” financially, filming all three movies at once. As a result, the ensemble cast did not receive “massive salaries.”

“Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life,” Wood explained, adding that the trade-off was “that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever.”

It’s been over two decades since The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) hit theaters, and Astin told The Guardian that he’s “very comfortable financially now.”

As for what’s next for the franchise, Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum is currently in development from director Andy Serkis, while another installment with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is also being co-written by Stephen Colbert.

Astin hasn’t been confirmed to reprise his role, but he said, “I don’t think anybody is opposed to it. We’d all love to connect to those characters, particularly if it’s done with such sensitivity as we heard.” As for whether he’ll fight for better pay this time, he added, “Goddam right.”

Matt Damon has been on quite a journey as of late.

The blockbuster star criss-crossed the globe in recent weeks for high-profile stops to promote his starring turn as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey, which is dominating the box office and earning Oscar buzz. But he just ducked into a much more intimate place — the Criterion Closet — for a walk down memory lane to revisit some classic films.

“Hey, this is Matt Damon. I’m in the Criterion Closet. There’s just an incredible collection here, and I’m just going to randomly grab some stuff and say what comes to mind,” he said in kicking off what has become a beloved stop for movie stars and auteurs on their promo rounds. He first picked up Purple Noon, a 1960s crime thriller film directed by René Clément and based on Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Damon toplined Anthony Minghella’s 1999 version, and said that he never watched Purple Noon because he didn’t want to, nor did Minghella want him to, so as not to color their own adaptation. “The movie that [Anthony] did have me see for Ripley was actually Knife in the Water. It was just to get a sense of the aesthetic and the boat work we were going to do. But I remember it being wonderful,” Damon noted.

He then picked up Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which won four Academy Awards. “I like Traffic for a very special reason. So I’ve done, I think, 10 movies with Steven Soderbergh. I absolutely adore him. I love working with him for so many reasons. I mean, he cuts in camera. He is the editor, he’s the director, he’s the cinematographer, and he’s the camera operator. And he cuts the work you do the day you shoot it and he sends it to you so you can watch the movie develop as it’s going. When he won the Oscar for directing this movie, he kind of scoffed at the idea that he would do anything like it ever again,” he said.

Damon, who added that it’s a “remarkable movie” featuring an “absolutely out of this world” performance from Oscar winner Benicio del Toro, said, “I’m taking it as a reminder to when things go really well in your life creatively, never protect your beachhead, and that’s a conversation that I’ve had with Soderbergh many, many times. You want to keep pushing. You do not want to just do the same thing over and over and over.”

Damon then picked up an “impossible to find” movie with You Can Count on Me, directed by his good friend and onetime collaborator Kenneth Lonergan. “This was my introduction to Kenny Lonergan. Casey Affleck and I went and did a play in London, one of Kenny’s plays. I ended up producing Manchester by the Sea that Casey was in, and that all happened because I saw this [movie] about 27 years ago,” Damon explained. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful little movie. I’ve been looking forward to showing it to my kids for years. I’ve even called Kenny and he’s like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know [where to find it]. I can’t find it either.’”

Damon turned his attention to Gus Van Sant by picking up Drugstore Cowboy, which he said was the first movie by the filmmaker that he’d ever seen. “I saw it in the Harvard Square Theater, which no longer exists. Matt Dillon quite famously said to Gus that he would never talk to him again after he saw the rough cut, and that was why Gus was nervous to show us the rough cut of Goodwill Hunting. It’s a phenomenal movie and Matt Dillon’s amazing,” he said. “And they obviously made up once the movie came out and was a wild success.”

He obviously went on to work with Van Sant, who directed Good Will Hunting. The 1997 film, penned by Damon and best friend Ben Affleck, won them Oscars for best screenplay. Damon then spent some more time on Van Sant’s filmography by picking up My Own Private Idaho starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.

“River Phoenix has this amazing monologue at a campfire. When I got to know Gus, it was the first thing I asked him. I asked him about that scene and how it came to be,” Damon revealed. “Gus told me this incredible story about River coming to work and they had a different scene scripted. And River said, ‘No, I have an idea.’ And Gus just let him do whatever. He just trusted his actor. There’s a great lesson in collaboration and in trusting the people that you work with and being confident in what you can do, but believing in what they can do too.”

Damon also dished on Carl Franklin’s One False Move (a film both he and Affleck love), No Country for Old Men (and how he modeled his True Grit accent after Tommy Lee Jones’ work in the film), Double Indemnity and more. See Damon’s full Criterion Closet stop below.