Variety is reporting that Javier Bardem has been offered the role of Guido Contini in Rob Marshall's upcoming film version of the musical Nine. Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard currently starring as Edith Piaf in the film La Vie en Rose are said to be in talks to play Guido's sexy mistress, Carla, and his wife, Luisa, respectively. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who won an Oscar for her performance as Velma Kelly in Marshall's film version of Chicago, is apparently being courted for the role of Guido's muse, Claudia, with Sophia Loren as his mother, who appears as a ghost.
Marshall will produce and choreograph Nine with John DeLuca, his partner in Lucamar Productions, for the Weinstein Co. Michael Tolkin is adapting the script, with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, the composer and lyricist of the original production. Book writer Arthur Kopit and Yeston will be credited as executive producers, according to Variety.
Nine, based on Fellini's film 8 1/2, tells the story of film director Guido Contini, who undergoes a crisis of confidence over his career while juggling his relationships with the many women in his life. Raul Julia originated the role on Broadway in Tommy Tune's 1982 production, which took the Tony Award for Best Musical defeating Dreamgirls. Antonio Banderas played Guido in a 2003 Broadway revival.
The Spanish-born Bardem received a 2001 Best Actor Academy Award nomination for Before Night Falls. He will soon be seen in the Coen Brothers-directed adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country for Old Men and Mike Newell's adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera.
