tzikeh

Trailer for Nine, brought to you by the same folks who adapted / directed / choreographed Chicago.

The trailer is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Did I mention how spectacularly, breathtakingly awesome the trailer is? You can't beat the cast acting-wise (Daniel Day-Lewis, Sophia Loren, Penélope Cruz, Dame Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, and the spectacular Marion Cotillard as Luisa). I'm pretty sure most, if not all of them, can sing. But....

He's Italian. Guido is ITALIAN. 8½ (or Otto e mezzo), the Fellini film that the musical is based on, is about an Italian film director (played by Marcello Mastroianni), his writer/director's block, and the many women in his life. When it was adapted as a musical, the title was changed to Nine, since nothing rhymes with "eight-and-a-half," and even less nothing rhymes with "otto e mezzo". In the original Broadway run in 1982, Guido was played by Raul Julia, a Puerto Rican. In the 2003 Broadway revival, Guido was played by Antonio Banderas, a Spaniard.

And now... Daniel Day-Lewis, an Englishman. Aren't there any Italian actors anymore? Should we get a guy from Sweden the next time they have a go at it?

Don't get me wrong; I love DDL, and he looks like he's going to be amazing (not that you ever hear him speak in the trailer). And Judi Dench singing "Folies Bergère"? I. Am. So. There.

But come on. BE ITALIAN. They're even using that number as the song in the trailer!

(For the curious, this is the trailer for Tim Burton's 9, which is pretty as far from Nine as you can get.)