DVDizzy Forum

Tony-winning choreographer Rob Ashford is attached to direct Paramount’s big-screen take of Broadway’s musical adaptation of the screen classic Sunset Boulevard, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Ashford won a Tony for best choreography for 2002’s Thoroughly Modern Millie and earned nominations for the musicals The Wedding Singer, Curtains, Cry-Baby, Promises, Promises and Evita. He also earned best director and best choreography nominations for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which starred Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is among the producers of the project, adapted from the 1950 black-and-white classic that starred Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded and deluded silent-screen star who ensnares a down-on-his-luck screenwriter into her fantasy of making a comeback.

Glenn Close, the seven-time Oscar nominee, will star in the production, reprising the role she played to great acclaim on Broadway twice before. Close is playing Desmond, a role she portrayed when the musical hit Broadway in 1994, winning her third Tony Award; she reprised the part to great acclaim in a 2016 revival that played both London and New York. The musical features a score by Lloyd Webber, with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The original production won seven Tonys in all, including best musical, book and original score.

A fall start is being eyed. Close had been loosely attached to the project since last year, but pieces were not coalescing until a director was found.

Q: What’s atop your to-do list once this is all over?

Glenn Close: By the end of the year, I really would love to work on the movie based on Sunset Boulevard the musical. That's always on my mind and I think we're getting closer...

UmbrellaFish wrote:I’d like to see her finally film it, but I’ll believe it when it happens. I just don’t know who the audience for this is beyond “people who want to see Glenn Close win an Oscar” and I’m doubtful that’s encouragement enough to greenlight a new ALW adaptation. If a big studio won’t fund a proper movie adaptation, I could see ALW just restaging the recent revival and filming that.

Maybe Close will win the big award for “Hillbilly Elegy.”

UmbrellaFish wrote:Cats had incredible longevity on both sides of the Atlantic. Sunset Boulevard did not. In terms of money-making potential, history was on Cats’ side. That’s not the case with Sunset. And after Cats bombed, I just don’t understand why any movie exec should be digging through ALW’s repertoire— although admittedly they are two very different shows and Sunset Boulevard would naturally be easier to adapt.

I agree, personally I much prefer to listen to LuPone’s recording.

TheSequelOfDisney wrote: Still, I wouldn't mind seeing an adaptation of this. Though I've always preferred Patti LuPone or Elaine Paige to Close, but I'm not making the movie so...