Universal, Barbra Streisand And Joel Silver Tap Julian Fellowes To Script ?Gypsy?

[Will42]

LOS ANGELES, CA, March 13, 2012—Producers Barbra Streisand and Joel Silver have set Academy Award®-winning writer Julian Fellowes to pen the screenplay adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ Tony Award winning musical, Gypsy, which Ms. Streisand and Mr. Silver are currently developing for Universal Pictures. Ms. Streisand will portray “Momma Rose” in the new version, her first musical film since Yentl in which the Oscar®-winning actress and iconic singer starred, produced, co-wrote and directed in 1983.

Fellowes won the Original Screenplay Academy Award® for Gosford Park and most recently earned the Emmy and Golden Globe for creating and writing the acclaimed miniseries, Downton Abbey. His musical theatre work includes adapting the script for Disney’s stage production of Mary Poppins.

Gypsy has exhilarated audiences on both stage and screen since its first Broadway run in 1959 with Ethel Merman. Since then, the compelling story based on the memoirs of the famous striptease artist, Gypsy Rose Lee, has spawned numerous reincarnations including the 1962 film starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood, four Broadway revivals, as well as a made-for-television movie.

A celebrated artist, Streisand has gathered Oscar®, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America and Golden Globe awards, winning Oscars® for both, Best Actress (Funny Girl) and Best Original Song (for her composition of “Evergreen” from her production of A Star Is Born).

Gypsy marks Silver’s first foray into Broadway movie musicals after a career of producing several commercially-successful films including the Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, Die Hard and Sherlock Holmes franchises.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/universal-barbra-streisand-and-joel-silver-tap-julian-fellowes-to-script-gypsy/#more-243331

[JP2]

The ball is rollin'

[Gothampc]

Get out the Lucille Ball-Mame cameras. Increase your portfolio holdings in cheesecloth and vaseline.

[broadwaybabytn]

This is still going on?

[Claudia Draper]

Very much so. Mike Nichols is rumored director. Rumors of Gaga as Rose !! Also heard Katherine Mcphee.

[broadwaybabytn]

"Rumors of Gaga as Rose !! Also heard Katherine McPhee."

Do you mean as Gypsy? I was sure Streisand was playing Rose.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Good, we can never get enough GYPSY. I named all my cats for characters in GYPSY. And the title also appears in all my passwords.

I just hope they don't rewrite it TOO much, it's pretty well-structured as is.

[givesmevoice]

Maybe Fellowes will add some time jumps. Then Streisand will be more age-appropriate.

[DAME]

I think Gaga would be a great choice as Gypsy. They do look like mother and daughter.

[JoeKv99]

That screenwriter has a job ahead of him- not only retrofitting the story so that Rose is pushing 70 throughout, but figuring out how Rose can sing every song.

"Rose comes upon Tulsa in the alley talking to Louise about his act. She sits the kids down on a garbage can and starts to sing "Got your top hat, got your white tie, all you need now is the girl!"

I'm looking forward to the scene in the dressing room where Rose tells the strippers that "You Gotta Get a Gimmick."

[Gothampc]

I renew my request to cast the strippers as follows:

Mazeppa - Elaine Stritch

Elektra - Angela Lansbury

Tessie Tura - Chita Rivera

[JoeKv99]

Barbra is going to pull a Peter Sellers and play every part herself.

[nasty_khakis]

Screw vaseline and cheesecloth, this movie is going to be shot through a Hanes t-shirt!

[Musicaldudepeter]

Will this earn Streisand an Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role?

[nybearhugz]

Hello Grandma Rose!!

This film has the potential to be the year's best comedy film...What are these people thinking!

[Will42]

Honestly, I still can't believe they are actually doing this. Streisand is 70, hell she is too old to play the part on stage, how on earth are they gonna make her look believable on screen?

[gypsy4]

I'm looking forward to the opening scene when Barbara sings "Let Me Entertain You". I feel bad for the actor playing Herbie he won't get to sing a note.

[Brick]

STOP! STOP. THIS. PROJECT!

[Gaveston2]

Doesn't the basic pleasure of GYPSY lie (along with the amazing score) in seeing a star throw caution to the winds to play a hard-driving character, warts and all, with no concern for whether she is "likable"?

When has Streisand ever been willing to do anything like that? In YENTL, she played a penniless girl pretending to be a BOY and still looked like she had spent six hours in Hair and Make-up.

[EricMontreal22]

I was going to say, doesn't Babs have a reputation of in the past fighting with directors to make her characters more likeable? Though I suppose that was in the past and may not apply here...

I love some Fellowes--I'm a Downton Abbey fan and loved Gosford Park, though this still seems a slightly weird fir for him.

I'm always game for another movie musical, especially one of Gypsy, but I admit a part of me wishes they would film something that hasn't been filmed. I know people are mixed on it, but I'm more than fine with the Bette version as representing the stage production (though I wish they had filmed Patti's for TV as planned), and don't really see any reason for another one--except of course that it's an iconic role and Babs wants to play it. I swear she must have been waiting for Laurents to die so he couldn't have much say in this.

[Mister Matt]

If anything, we'll get the most embarrassing and pathetic Rose's Turn to date.

Yeah, that's all I got. I wonder how they're going to work out Rose's obvious lack of egg production to produce those girls. Multi-racial casting and adoption?

Mickey Rooney as Rose's father.

[somethingwicked]

Pete Hammond has written a very intelligent piece for Deadline in defense of Streisand doing this film that (I think) really artfully addresses the detractors.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/streisands-gypsy-too-old-or-going-for-the-gold/

[Gaveston2]

^^^somethingwicked, I don't see how that blogger really answers anyone's concerns. Even HE has his doubts about a 72-year-old Rose.

His basic argument seems to be, "It's a great role and a great star. So verisimilitude be damned!"

Frankly, I'm not sure Streisand can even SING the part any more, unless she recorded it years ago and has the master tapes in her garage. Her recent concert from the Village Vanguard stuck to light ballads and even so the instrument was a little shaky (for the first time, in my experience).

I'm not sure she can still do justice to the big belting of "Some People", "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn." (Yes, I know: neither could Tyne Daly, but Daly isn't one of the greatest singers of the past 100 years. Expectations were different.)

[qolbinau]

I feel confident that they'd be able to get one performance of each song out of her, with the aid of computers, that would be good enough.

I love the idea of this though. A vanity project to end her career (hopefully in a good way). I will be first in line.

[egghumor]

Streisand plans to employ the same tag line she used on the YENTL movie posters: "NOTHING'S IMPOSSIBLE."

She really has gone mad. She must be thrilled that Laurents is out of her way.

[somethingwicked]

It is laughable how many people keep referring to Laurents's death being some kind of facilitator of this film being made. It was green-lit and first developed when he was still alive, and if he didn't want it to happen, it never would have happened. End of story.

In a NY Times article that addressed the possibility of Streisand being too old to play Rose, Laurents said, “First of all, they can do magic in Hollywood. Second, does it really matter?”