You've got to love Daniel Day Lewis. Not only is he an amazing actor, utterly charming person and proud wearer of willfully bizarre outfits, he's also never afraid to take a risk. The news that he's planning to take a role in Rob Marshall's Nine is simultaneously shocking and completely unsurprising.
Nine is a musical based on Fellini's 8 ½, with a famous director in the midst of a professional crisis while also trying to juggle the many women in his life. If Day Lewis takes the role – and we pray he does – he'd be taking over from Javier Bardem, who vacated a short while ago. Others already in the cast include Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench.
Can Day-Lewis sing? We don't know. Do we care? Not really. Day Lewis never gives anything less than everything and even if he doesn't have the most tuneful lungs in the world you can guarantee he'll do something interesting enough to keep you riveted.
This would be a genius piece of casting on Marshall's part. Musicals firmly divide audiences and they're, generally speaking, a tough sell to men. Day Lewis would draw in an audience who might otherwise avoid this like the plague. And his co-stars are hardly slouches, boasting an embarrassment of Oscars between them (Cruz should retro-actively be awarded one for Volver, for the sake of neatness).
This just leaped up our list from 'sounds sort of interesting' to 'must-see'.