Samantha Mumba Signs $1 Million Hollywood Musical Deal; Could It Be ANNIE or INTO THE WOODS?

According to the Daily Mail, Samantha Mumba has just signed a $1 million deal to star in a Hollywood film musical. She revealed the news to friends at a launch party for Stacey Jackson's new album.

"She was absolutely thrilled that she had landed a lead role in a big budget Hollywood musical," a close friend told the Mail. "She had been sworn to secrecy over what the film was but said it was going to be as big budget as Les Miserables."

It is rumored the film will begin shooting "later this year". Movie adaptations of Annie (with producers Will Smith and Jay-Z) and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, set to star Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp and others, fit the bill. BroadwayWorld will keep you up to date once the official announcement is released!

Read the original report here.

Mumba, an Irish singer and actress, released her debut album Gotta Tell You in 2000, and a compilation album, The Collection, in 2006. She is well known for her role in 2002's The Time Machine and her work in Irish independent films. She also appeared in the 2008 TV series Dancing On Ice. She is currently working on the movies Home and Deterrence Theory.

As previously reported, Will Gluck is directing the forthcoming major motion picture remake of the beloved Charles Strouse/Thomas Meehan/Martin Charnin stage musical classic Annie from a revised script by Emma Thompson and Aline Brosh McKenna. The film is aiming to begin production in late fall 2013 for a 2014 release. Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) is in talks to star opposite Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild).

The Tony Award-winning stage musical Annie has previously been filmed twice, the first time in 1982 with John Huston in the director's chair and later in a made-for-TV adaptation produced by Disney and helmed by CHICAGO director Rob Marshall in 1999. ANNIE is currently playing on Broadway in a James Lapine-directed revival starring Lilla Crawford, Katie Finneran and Anthony Warlow.

As BWW previously reported, INTO THE WOODS is heading to London to begin shooting this September. James Lapine, the original book writer of INTO THE WOODS, is reworking the script for the screenplay, while Sondheim is expected to contribute some new songs. Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Into the Woods won several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera.