Cate Blanchett will reportedly portray Lucille Ball in a biopic
Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett will play the 'I Love Lucy' star in a new film.
Cate Blanchett arrives at the 2015 Oscars.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/File
An Oscar-winning actress may portray legendary sitcom producer and star Lucille Ball on the big screen.
“Cinderella” actress Cate Blanchett is reportedly attached to portray Ms. Ball in a biopic. Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on the 2010 film “The Social Network” and created such popular shows as “The West Wing," is reportedly a possibility to write the movie.
Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., Ball’s children with her co-star and former husband Desi Arnaz, will reportedly produce the film.
Ms. Blanchett may be more familiar to moviegoers for stately roles like her portrayal of elf queen Galadriel in the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films and as Queen Elizabeth I in the films “Elizabeth” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” She’s proved to be more than able at playing screen icons before – she won one of her two Oscars for her portrayal of actress Katharine Hepburn in the 2004 film “The Aviator.”
But does she have the comedy chops to play one of the most gifted comedic actresses of all time? Don't worry. Blanchett appeared briefly in the 2007 comedy “Hot Fuzz” and also appeared in the 2004 Wes Anderson film “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” She also voiced a guest appearance on the animated sitcom “Family Guy” and was recently praised by critics for her performance as the stepmother in Cinderella, with reviewers writing that she’s “wonderfully wicked” and “deliciously terrifying.”
The work for which Ball is most remembered, the sitcom “I Love Lucy,” debuted in 1951 and stars Ball as housewife Lucy Ricardo, who desperately wants to be involved in show business. She’s married to bandleader Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz) and the two are friends with their landlords, Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) Mertz. The show was wildly popular and Ball was powerful behind the scenes, with Ball and Arnaz having co-founded the production company Desilu that produced “Lucy.”
Ball won two Golden Globes and five Emmy Awards, all related to her performance on "I Love Lucy," and she also appeared in such films as “Stage Door,” “Ziegfeld Follies,” and “Mame.”