You know you've got the makings of a very interesting film when Daniel Day-Lewis is your replacement actor. He had to step in for Javier Bardem once he tapped out of the film adaptation of the Tony-winnng musical adaptation of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 called Nine, citing exhaustion. The job of the lead character of film director Guido Contini, who has to juggle the numerous women in his life while singing and dancing, will certainly be a tiring effort, especially when some of those women are Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, and Sophia Loren. Now, director Rob Marshall (Chicago) has added Kate Hudson to the mix, which means that much more juggling for Day-Lewis. Cotillard will play his wife Luisa, Loren his mother, Cruz his mistress, Kidman his star and muse and Dench his confidant and costumer. The role of Saraghina, "the whore from Guido's youth" has yet to be cast. Who's up for playing a hooker, ladies? It's not as though they make up an inordinate percentage of female roles in Hollywood!
Marshall says they created a role in the film specifically for Hudson.
"Her revelatory skills as a singer and a dancer lead to the creation of the role of "Stephanie," a fashion reporter from Vogue working in Italy. An exciting new song, written by our composer Maury Yeston, has been added for her as well."
So one has to wonder what adding such things will force them to subtract to balance them out, of course, but one should be able to trust Marshall to work his movie musical magic. With a cast this compelling, he can't afford to make it mundane.
