- Veteran actor and film-maker casts R&B singer as female lead in musical version of classic Hollywood melodrama
Clint Eastwood is to direct Beyoncé Knowles in the latest remake of A Star Is Born, the classic Hollywood melodrama about a fading, drunken superstar who finds himself eclipsed by a younger model.
Eastwood is planning a musical version, mimicking the direction of the 1976 A Star Is Born, which cast Barbra Streisand alongside Kris Kristofferson and moved the story from the film industry to the music business. Deadline reports that studio Warner Bros had hoped to team Knowles with Will Smith, but this has not yet been confirmed. Robert Downey Jr and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm are also rumoured to be under consideration, while Russell Crowe was reportedly in line for the role of the fading older star when news of the project broke last year.
A Star Is Born has already been remade twice. The original 1937 version starred Fredric March and Janet Gaynor as an ageing Hollywood actor and the bright young ingenue he takes under his wing. The film was remade in 1954 with James Mason and Judy Garland. Director Frank Pierson had wanted Elvis Presley for the 1976 version, but the singer reportedly turned down the role after being told he would not be given top billing, and it went to Kristofferson.
Eastwood will be taking on a musical for the first time as director, but the veteran actor and film-maker maintains an intense interest in music. His last film where appeared in front of the cameras, Gran Torino, featured Eastwood crooning over the end credits, and he composed scores for his recent films Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Changeling.
