Let’s forget for a moment those horrible FOCKERS movies and realize that Barbra Streisand hasn’t starred in a film since 1996’s THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES. Somewhat strange for an actress who has been nominated for five Oscars and won two. But perhaps Ms. Streisand has seen the Tomatometer for LITTLE FOCKERS and wants to cleanse her acting palate as she’s ready to return to a starring role in an upcoming musical.
Streisand is reportedly in talks with Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver to star in a remake of GYPSY, the 1962 film based on the 1959 Broadway musical (based on the 1957 memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee). Streisand would star as Rose, the demanding stage mother of two sisters she’s desperately trying to make famous. The older, and more talented, rebels and runs away with the man leaving Rose to depend on the considerably less talented younger sister Louise. She unwillingly becomes a burlesque stripper and blossoms into the new role while her mother has a nervous breakdown.
(Even if you’ve never seen GYPSY, you may be more familiar with it than you think. In AIRPLANE when Ethel Merman, who starred in the original Broadway production, is in the GI hospital, she bursts out of bed singing one of GYPSY’s signature tunes, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”)
While nothing has been confirmed, Streisand has met with producers and the lyricist Stephen Sondheim about the film’s music. It could mobilize quickly or it could go the way of the A STAR IS BORN remake, which has new talent attached yearly.
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