Daniel Day-Lewis is "in talks" to play Guido Contini in Rob Marshall's forthcoming film version of Nine, according to Variety. Day-Lewis would replace Javier Bardem, who dropped out of a planned fall start for the film musical, stating he was exhausted from work and awards season. Nine reunites Marshall with the production team responsible for his Oscar-winning film version of Chicago.
Contini is the central character, a film director in a career crisis who must juggle the demands of the women in his life wife, mistress, muse and producer. Penelope Cruz as Carla, Marion Cotillard as Luisa and Sophia Loren as Guido's mother have signed on for Nine, and Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench are reportedly negotiating to join them in the screen adaptation of the Tony-winning 1982 musical inspired by Fellini's 8½. Nine features a score by Maury Yeston and a script by Michael Tolkin The Player, Changing Lanes. According to Variety, Anthony Minghella did a rewrite of the script before his recent death.
Producer Harvey Weinstein's first association with Day-Lewis came when Weinstein's Miramax Films acquired distribution rights to My Left Foot, which won the actor his first Academy Award. He won his second Best Actor Oscar this year for There Will Be Blood. While the two reportedly clashed over the marketing of My Left Foot, Day-Lewis later credited Weinstein with gaining notice for a small Irish film that might otherwise have disappeared.
