What is it exactly about “The Bell Jar” and the grimly fatalistic Sylvia Plath saga (i.e., if not one and the same then at least closely related) that Julia Stiles and her mostly female producing partners (Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Galt Niederhoffer along with exec producers Christine Vachon and Jocelyn Hayes) feel has been untapped or insufficiently explored by Gwynneth Paltrow‘s Sylvia, which came out only four years ago and grossed $1,302,242 domestic?

Stiles is planning to star (and possibly direct or write?) a brand-new Plath drama in early ’08, based on the famed autobiographical novel, but who’s going to want to see it? Who outside of the hardcore Plath fans is going to say, “Great..another one!” After slogging through Sylvia and with the memory of that awful 1979 Bell Jar adaptation from director Larry Peerce and star Marilyn Hassett still vivid, I’m totally Plath-ed out.

Gregg Goldstein‘s Hollywood Reporter story says that the “1950s-era drama centers on young book editor Esther Greenwood (Stiles), who grows troubled by the social trappings of her time and slowly descends into mental illness.” Good God, we’ve seen it…we’ve seen it!

Stiles wrote and directed the dramatic short film Raving, Goldstein reports. Starring Zooey Deschanel and Bill Irwin, the short will premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival and May 8 on the Sundance Channel.