If you’re an actress hoping to compete for the Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Oscars in, say, 2010, we’ve got some bad news for you: don’t bother. They’re already sewn up.
How do we know this? Because today Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman signed on to star in Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Nine – and if you can think of a better Oscar-hoovering combo than two Oscar winning-actresses starring in a movie from the bloke who directed Chicago, based on a musical in turn based on Fellini’s 81/2 (this reporter doesn't know how to do the fraction sign; forgive him), then fair play to you.
Dench and Kidman join a cast already teeming with Oscar-botherers, from Javier Bardem (who will play a film director juggling several women in his life) to Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren to Penelope Cruz (who has presented at the Oscars…).
No word yet on who the two new arrivals might be playing, though, but we are intrigued to see Dame Judi in full-on song-and-dance mode (she’s got form in this department, winning an Olivier Award for Best Actress In A Musical as recently as 1995).
Nine had been due to shoot in March, but was delayed due to the Writers’ Strike, with the late Anthony Minghella unable to finish his revision of Michael Tolkin’s script before the picket lines went up. In a way, the delay has been a boon for the film, as it allows Kidman – who’s giving birth in the summer – time to take some maternity leave and join the shoot when it kicks off in September.