May 19, 2009 
source: traileraddict.com
I thought this article deserved a shamelessly sexy title to accompany the very sexy trailer to Rob Marshall‘s upcoming musical Nine.
The Oscar nominated-director of Chicago is bringing the Tony-award winning musical to the big screen with a cast that includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench and, ahem, Fergie. Yes, that Fergie.
The musical (and now, the film) is inspired by Federico Fellini‘s autobiographical classic 8 1/2. It tells the story of legendary Italian director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis), who attempts to balance the numerous women in his life during a mid life crisis. Cotillard will play Guido’s wife, Cruz his mistress, Dench his producer, Loren his mother, Kidman his muse, and Fergie will play ahem ahem, a whore from his youth. I swear, that’s straight from the press release. I’m not saying nothing.
Check out the trailer, and let us know what you think.
http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/10970
I don’t mind a musical now and again, especially if the filmmaking is as impressive as it looks in this trailer. Nine has a pretty strong cast (with some exceptions cough cough), and Marshall did a great job with Chicago in 2002. Besides, Daniel Day-Lewis wouldn’t sign up for something that wasn’t incredible, right?
Nine opens in the U.S. on the 25th November. Australians will have to wait until January 21st, 2010.
Discuss: What’s up with Judi Dench’s Italian accent?
Quickflix 
Nine combines two pet hates, remakes and musical adaptations of other material. As musicals, cultural calamities like Mamma Mia (ABBA), Rent (La Boheme) and The Producers (original 60’s film) pissed all over the original material. But at least musicals are confined to stages frequented mostly by the sort of assholes who still think Andrew Lloyd Webber is a genius. As films, this rubbish reaches a wider audience and finds new ways of sucking.Adapting 8 1/2 into a musical takes a special kind of arrogant thinking, as if Fellini’s original can be improved by adding music and dancing. But turning the musical into a film combines arrogance with stupidity on a level usually reserved for Iraq invasions.HOWEVER – Daniel Day-Lewis’ involvement offers a glimmer of hope. He usually shows good judgment in role choices and even managed to make Gangs of New York entertaining. But then there’s Fergie playing La Saraghina, raising questions of whether plastic surgery and breast augmentation was available to Italian prostitutes in the 40’s?
I have to disagree with the comment above. I think adapting original materials into musicals isn’t so bad when it’s done well. It’s just another interpretation of the material another way at looking at the issues and characters dealt in the material. Like Mamma Mia really put the ABBA songs in context and showed their relation to everyday life, and Rent showed a contemporary version of La Boheme – a play that let’s face it most young people wouldn’t even look at -. It’s not about improving the film as you say about 8 1/2. It’s about looking at it from a different point of view. There’s nothing arrogant about that. And if adding songs helps the author get across his interpretation then so be it. Many people today would watch 8 1/2 and not be able to connect with it whereas 9 might make more sense to other people. It’s about connection, and art is only as good as it’s audiences’ reception. The real question is whether this film is any good and can stand on it’s own two feet as a piece of work. It would have been nice if the trailer showed more of the film and not just random cutaways set to one dance number.