The Weinsteins Dream On

Chatting to various rags and press wire services, I see that Harvey Weinstein has been hyping his dream-cast for Nine, the next musical from Chicago and Memoirs of Geisha director Rob Marshall. It is an adaptation of a Broadway hit that was itself an adaptation, of sorts, of Fellini's 8 1/2. Yeah - Rob Marshall remaking Fellini as a filmed reincarnation of a staged musical. Hang on though, it gets even funnier.

Weinstein's dream cast list includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger. He says "How will we pay their salaries? We'll figure it out. There are roles for six women in the movie who have to be beautiful and sing and dance. It's a terrible assignment to cast this." More to the point, Harvey, how will you negotiate their billing?

As for the male lead, Marshall and (more to the point) Weinstein are reportdly considering Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Javier Bardem or Antonio Banderas. Banderas took the role in the 2003 stage revival, so maybe the smart money would be on him.

Expect Nine to used as pungent Oscar bait late next year, probably with less than a third of this dream cast in place.