Renee Zellweger Rumored to Star in Remake of Cabaret

By: Sep. 13, 2005
LIZA MINNELLI
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Renee Zellweger is rumored to step into Liza Minnelli's garterbelts as Sally Bowles in a big screen remake of Cabaret.

According to Softpedia News, the star, who received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Roxie Hart in the film version of Chicago, is "said to take up on some vocal training as she might join the cast of another musical....(she) is planning to redo Minnelli's notable performance in the 1972 hit." "I do love a challenge as an actress, and this would be one of the biggest," the actress is quoted as saying to Sky News.

Zellweger won an Academy Award for her performance as bedraggled mountain girl Ruby in Cold Mountain; she was also nominated for an Oscar for Bridget Jones' Diary, the role that launched her into the upper ranks of film stardom. Other film credits include Cinderella Man, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Down with Love (in which she can also be heard vocalizing), White Oleander, Me, Myself and Irene, Nurse Betty, One True Thing, Jerry Maguire (her true breakout film) and Empire Records.

The 1972 film version of Cabaret was based on the Tony Award-winning musical with a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff (which was based in turn on John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera and the original source, The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood). While the film kept the basic plot of "divinely decadent" cabaret singer Sally Bowles' amorous adventures in a Weimar Berlin increasingly darkened by the presence of the Nazis, details, characters and even songs were changed. Bob Fosse took the reins from Harold Prince as director of the film (and from original choreographer Ron Field) and won an Oscar for his work. Minnelli and co-star Joel Grey also won Academy Awards, and the movie musical, which won five others, was also nominated for Best Picture. Prince helmed a 1987 revival of the musical, and Sam Mendes' and Rob Marshall's reimagining of the piece won the 1998 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.


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