'Nine' Filming Postponed Due to Writers' Strike

Variety reports that due to the writers' strike, production on the up-coming Rob Marshall movie musical adaptation of Nine has been postponed to 2008.  The actors attached to The Weinstein Co. project will remain intact, though it was announced earlier this week that actress Catherine Zeta-Jones had withdrawn from the film.

The article states: "The film was postponed because the script just wasn't ready when the WGA went on strike. Michael Tolkin wrote it, and Anthony Minghella was brought in to do a polish. He only put in three days's work when the union went out.  Sources said that because of the intricate interaction between the script and the choreography that will be done by Marshall and John DeLuca, it was decided to wait for the writers to return to work and hone the script."

It was announced by NY Daily News on Monday November 19 that Catherine Zeta-Jones, originally slated to play the luscious star, Claudia, backed-out of the film project because of the lack of character development in the script.

The film will continue to star Javier Bardem as on-screen director Guido Contini, Penelope Cruz as his mistress; Marion Cotillard (of La Vie en Rose), his wife; and Sophia Loren, his mother.

Nine revolves around one central character, Guido Contini, a film director in the Fellini mold. He is contracted to write and direct a film, but is unable to come up with a suitable plot. After recent box office failures, he finds himself drifting towards a nervous breakdown. Guido finds himself examining his past flawed relationships with the many women who have come through his life and the struggle to act his mature age of 40 – as opposed to nine.

The musical was inspired by the Fellini film 8 1/2. The film version is adapted by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and novelist Michael Tolkin, with original music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and original book by Arthur Kopit.  Kopit and Yeston are both executive producers of the up-coming film. Academy Award-winning director Marshall and Weinstein last worked together on Chicago via Miramax Films.  Nine will be produced by Marshall and John DeLuca and choreograped by the pair, as well.

Bardem's many Spanish screen-credits include Goya's Ghosts and The Dancer Upstairs.  His latest film-projects are Love in the Time of Cholera and the Coen Brothers' No Country of Old Men, adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel.  Cruz has appeared in Volver, Vanilla Sky, and Blow. Cruz and Bardem are currently working in Woody Allen's next film.  Cotillard made her break-through performance this summer as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.

Nine, set in Venice, Italy in the 1960s, debuted on Broadway in 1982, and won several Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Direction (Tommy Tune), Best Original Score (Yeston), Best Featured Actress (Liliane Montevecchi), and Best Costumes (William Ivey Long).

The 2003 Tony Award-winning Best Revival featured Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera, with Jane Krakowski (2003 Best Featured Actress in a Musical), Laura Benanti and Mary Stuart Masterson, among others.

Photo of Rob Marshall by Walter McBride / Retna Ltd