“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!”
Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard (1950) is coming back to the big screen, but this time with the musical treatment.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of such theatrical hits as The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Love Never Dies, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, put music to the story when Sunset Boulevard opened on Broadway in 1994 with Glenn Close in the lead as has-been Hollywood glamour star, Norma Desmond (portrayed in the 1950 film by Gloria Swanson, who won an Oscar for the role).
According to The Wrap, it turns out that Glenn Close is in “advanced talks” to return to the role she emanated on stage in the musical remake with Paramount Pictures. She’s not exactly out of touch with the role, as she just recently finished a Broadway revival run of the musical this last June. It will be interesting to see her on screen again; it seems as though we haven’t seen much of her in quite some time.
While many might jump on the bandwagon here and say, “Oh, great. Here comes another remake.” This is not really a remake per say. Granted, the story is based off of the original film, but this particular film is based off of the actual musical, and hence adds to the reasoning to get it made: it has something new to offer in a unique way in the film medium. It’s basically a new and different property; this is the musical version, not a bland rehash.
No director or other casting has been announced yet for the film, and no release date has been confirmed at this time.
As Andrew Lloyd Webber fans know, this is not the first Webber musical to be translated into film. The Phantom of the Opera got its due back in 2004 with Gerard Butler, Minnie Driver, Emmy Rosum, and Patrick Wilson. Also as Andrew Lloyd Webber fans should know, this will not be the first of his stage to film adaptations in development. A remake of Jesus Christ Superstar has been in the works, along with the first film versions of Cats (from Les Misérables (2012) and The King’s Speech (2010) director Tom Hooper) and an animated Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Hopefully Sunset Boulevard will not be lost in the shuffle of these other projects, but it’s probably safe to say anyway that we won’t be seeing this film for a few years.
In the realm of musicals based off of theater productions, there are non-Webber musicals like Wicked, which (witch?), after being in development many years looks to finally be coming to theaters on December 20, 2019. Then there are other musicals like Aida, Miss Saigon, and Pippin that have been stuck in development hell for many years, and we probably won’t be seeing them anytime soon. Maybe this film like La La Land (2016) will help rejuvenate the film musical genre again.
