Looks like the long-gestating Lucille Ball biopic is finally happening. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the untitled film about comedy legend Ball has landed at Amazon and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is in talks to star. Aaron Sorkin (“Steve Jobs,” “The Social Network”) penned the script. A director isn’t attached yet.
Ball is best known for portraying the titular character on the classic sitcom “I Love Lucy,” on which she starred and produced with her then-husband, Desi Arnaz. The couple formed Desilu Productions in 1950, which developed shows like “I Love Lucy,” other Ball vehicles including “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” and “The Lucy Show,” and renowned series “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “That Girl.”
The iconic actress is also known for her film work, including starring roles in “The Facts of Life,” “Yours, Mine and Ours,” and “Mame.”
Throughout her career Ball collected four Emmy wins (from 13 nods), the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Comedy Awards, the Television Critics Association’s Career Achievement Award, and the Women in Film Crystal Award. Women in Film eventually renamed their awards ceremony to the Crystal + Lucy Awards in honor of Ball. The Lucy is given to women with outstanding achievement in TV.
Ball and Arnaz’s children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., are producing the authorized Ball biopic with Escape Artists’ Jenna Block.
Blanchett has received six Academy Award nominations and won for her turns in “The Aviator” and “Blue Jasmine.” You can catch her in theaters now as 13 different personas in “Manifesto.” “Ocean’s Eight,” the all-female “Ocean’s 11” reboot co-starring Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, and Rihanna, and the film adaptation of Maria Semple’s bestseller “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” are among her upcoming projects.
Jessica Chastain stars in Sorkin’s next project, “Molly’s Game.” Based on Molly Bloom’s memoir, the film follows Bloom as she switches gears from Olympic skiing to developing a high-stakes, FBI-bait poker game. Sorkin wrote and directed the biopic, which hits theaters November 22.
