Out with this year’s male Oscar winner….in with this year’s other male Oscar winner. According to Variety, Daniel Day-Lewis will potentially take Javier Bardem‘s recently renounced starring role of Guido Contini in Nine. The musical feature is to be directed by Rob Marshall (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago). After a hectic awards season, Bardem backed out of the Fellini-based project. But apparently the awards season didn’t have the same affect on Day-Lewis, who of course won Best Actor for threatening to drink your milkshake.
Nine is an adaptation of the musical of the same name, which is an adaptation of
Fellini’s 8 1/2. The feature is being produced by Marc Platt with the screenplay adapted by Michael Tolkin. British thespian Day-Lewis, whose career has been on its second wind ever since his Oscar-nominated role in 2002’s Gangs of New York, is rumored to be playing the role of the famed film director. If Day-Lewis takes on the role of the mid-crisis director, he will be supported by a stellar cast portraying the many women he juggles in his life: Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench.
The Weinstein Co. is handling distribution of the pic and a spokesperson from the company has denied the rumours. But Harvey Weinstein is no stranger to the acting power that is Day-Lewis. Weinstein’s Miramax Films distributed My Left Foot, for which Day-Lewis received his first Oscar for his role as Christy Brown.