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BY BILLY SUTER
IT’S finally happening – the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed musical, Sunset Boulevard, has got the green light with Glenn Close in the lead role.
It has been reported that direction will be by Rob Ashford, who has been nominated for eight of Broadway’s Tony Awards, winning in 2002 for best choreography, for Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Close, nominated for seven Oscars but never a winner of one of the golden statuettes, might well get her chance to be nominated again for playing faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond in the film version of Sunset Boulevard, for which she has already received a Tony for her Broadway performance.
Sunset Boulevard started life as a 1950 film by Billy Wilder before it became a hit musical, a 2013 South African production of which starred Angela Killian, Jonathan Roxmouth and Bethany Dickson.
The Hollywood Reporter has named Ashford as the director of the planned movie version, adding in a report that filming is due to start later in the year, with Lloyd Webber as a producer of the Paramount production.
No other casting has been announced, reports Playbill, which points out that Ashford is also noted as the choreographer of Broadway’s The Wedding Singer, Curtains, Cry-Baby, Evita and Disney’s Frozen.
He also took an Emmy Award for his work on the 81st Academy Awards, and directed and choreographed the live TV productions of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan.
Other movie musical news is that whispers are stronger than ever that a sequel is being planned for The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman reportedly very keen to return to the role of circus creator P T Barnum.
A sequel seems inevitable as the film made a profit of $435 million against a production budget of $84 million and, according to Wikipedia. is the third most profitable live-action movie musical of all time (behind Beauty and the Beast and Grease, reports Box-office Mojo).
.....SoSuterBill..... 