Andrew Lloyd Webber Reveals Production on SUNSET BOULEVARD Film Has Been Stalled

Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed that production on the Sunset Boulevard film starring Glenn Close has been stalled.

"I wish I could say it's going into production tomorrow morning, but it's not," Lloyd Webber said to Variety. "Paramount has not wanted to go ahead with it. It's not for want of trying. Glenn Close has been absolutely doggedly trying to get it made."

Close and Lloyd Webber have been shopping the film for years. Close previously revealed that she had hoped to start filming the movie during the summer of 2021, which Paramount had halted.

Close originated the role of Norma Desmond on Broadway in 1994 before returning to the role in the recent revival.

Based on Billy Wilder's classic Academy Award-winning film, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning Best Musical SUNSET BOULEVARD features a celebrated book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.

In her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, faded, silent-screen goddess, Norma Desmond, lives in a fantasy world. Impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, on the run from debt collectors, stumbles into her reclusive world. Persuaded to work on Norma's 'masterpiece', a film script that she believes will put her back in front of the cameras, he is seduced by her and her luxurious life-style. Joe becomes entrapped in a claustrophobic world until his love for another woman leads him to try and break free with dramatic consequences.

Before it premiered as a Broadway musical, SUNSET BOULEVARD was first performed in London's West End at the Adelphi Theatre in 1993 starring Patti LuPone, where it ran for almost four years and played to nearly two million people. The American premiere was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles in December 1993 with Glenn Close as Norma. The musical was an instant success and played 369 performances before moving to Broadway in 1994 with, what was then, the biggest advance in Broadway history, at $37.5 million.