Rumor Patrol: No Truth to Reports of Liza Minnelli Starring in SUNSET BOULEVARD Film

We thought it was a little strange when it crossed our News Desk today that Liza Minnelli would be starring in a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, to be produced by the dynamic duo of TV, Film and Broadway vets Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. This was posted by 'Online PR News' on September 15th and we thought it odd that we wouldn't have heard of this, so we reached out to the pair and to Minnelli's publicist and quickly confirmed that there was NO truth to the report, and further confirmed that Zadan and Meron have never been involved with a movie version of Sunset Boulevard.

The last word that BroadwayWorld.com had heard about Sunset Boulevard, it was to star Barbra Streisand, with William Friedkin helming. (Which, we still think is a good idea.) These reports were then eclipsed by the news of the possibility of Streisand starring in the Jule Styne, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim new film version of Gypsy.

The genesis of a film version of Sunset Boulevard is as storied (and as long) as the one that carried on for years about WHO would star in the film version of CHICAGO, which finally got filmed 25 years later and won the Oscar for BEST PICTURE.

Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was directed by Trevor Nunn. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the fabled Los Angeles street. When young screenwriter Joe Gillis accidentally crosses her path, she sees in him an opportunity to make her comeback to the big screen. Romance and tragedy follow. Opening first in London in 1993, starring Patti LuPone, and then followed by Glenn Close on Broadway, the musical has had several long runs internationally and also enjoyed extensive tours, although it lost money because of its extraordinary running costs. A star vehicle, many well-known actresses have played the leading character, Norma Desmond, and the show has seen its share of legal battles as well.