Film & TV NewsGlenn Close Says Sunset Boulevard Film ‘Inching Closer’ to RealityClose won a Tony Award for her performance as Norma Desmond in the original Broadway production and reprised the role in the 2017 revival.
By
Andrew Gans
December 10, 2018
Glenn Close
Richard Hubert Smith
Tony winner Glenn Close, who starred in the original 1994 Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard as well as its 2017 revival, said a film version of the musical is “inching closer and closer” to reality.
Currently nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in The Wife, Close told Deadline, “The version we did in New York last year was quite different and it opened up a lot of people’s eyes…The story is just brilliant. [Norma Desmond is] one of the great characters ever written. If I have the privilege of doing that on film, that would be thrilling to me. I’m fascinated by the challenge of putting something on film that originated on the stage. It’s a tricky proposition.”
Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard (Broadway, 2017)
Joan Marcus
Close, who said the project has yet to get the green light, added, “I don’t know if I even should be talking about it. But I think we have a great team forming, and I have my fingers crossed. I hope it happens. It’s just a delicious feast of a story.”
It was previously reported that Paramount Pictures is developing the film adaptation of the musical, with Tony winner Close set to reprise her performance from the stage.
The prospective project was first reported in January 2016, prior to Close taking on the faded Hollywood star once more at the London Coliseum before a Broadway bow at the Palace Theatre. At the time, co-lyricist and book writer Christopher Hampton hoped shooting would begin while Close was still in London.
It had been over 20 years since Close opened the original Broadway production, but the Oscar nominee used the years away from Norma Desmond to find a new window into the character.
“I'm not saying I'm getting better, but I am saying that I do have more experience,” Close told Playbill as she discussed returning to the role first seen in the 1950 Billy Wilder film. “With more knowledge of myself and experiences I’ve had and heartbreaks I’ve had and enduring as I have—theoretically, an actor should only get better because our bodies and our minds and hearts are the material with which we build characters.”
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Sunset Boulevard Takes Its Final Broadway Bow
Sunset Boulevard Takes Its Final Broadway Bow
Tony winner Glenn Close returned to the role of Norma Desmond over 20 years since starring in the original Broadway production.
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Lupita Nyong'o, Katrina Lenk, Jelani Alladin, and more were on hand to celebrate the October 31 opening night of Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs' new musical.
