Dusty Springfield could sing. Nicole Kidman can… kinda carry a tune?
Movie star vanity projects aren’t automatically disasters, but there are a lot more Harlem Nights out there than Dances with Wolves. And if Nicole Kidman thinks she can replicate the sui generis voice of the Dusty Springfield, her planned biopic of the late British soul chanteuse will maybe be half as good as Beyond the Sea – which was flat-out fucking awful. Kidman’s secured The Hours screenwriter Michael Cunningham as a good-luck totem, but she has yet to find a director. While I’m sure there’s an offer of some sort out to Stephen Daldry, I wonder if everything is everything between those two after Kidman had to abruptly drop out of his recently completed The Reader. If they’re beefing, I bet Steven Shainberg would love a shot at following up the roaring success of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.
Kidman will produce the as-yet-untitled biopic, which is a double uh-oh. God help us if she decides to direct. In any event, expect something to happen soon: Universal is currently developing a competing Springfield project for Kristin Chenoweth. Now, she can sing! And if every nutjob who got bused in to see Wicked during its Broadway run shows up, her film has a very good shot at clearing $5 million domestic!