Good casting in a biopic is when the announcement comes in and you can't imagine anyone else playing the role. You can envisage the make-up and change of physical appearance, you can imagine them smiling the same way as the person (for some reason I also think caputring their smile and the feeling you get from their eyes, is the majority of the battle) and you instantly have the poster image, that dramatic and "money shot" dialogue scene and the Oscar speech all worked out in your head. Last night came the news that Anne Hathaway, recently Oscar nominated for playing a messed up and neurotic young lady with the weight of the world on her shoulders in Rachel Getting Married is now attached to the Weinsteins biopic of Judy Garland. Deal, if she signs (attached = "yeah if it all comes into place satisfactory, I will sign the contract and star in the movie") will include a film and stage adaptation, and according to the Weinsteins will be a musical or a play with music. Hathaway, a qualified singer (if such a certification is ever given out), showed off her vocal skills with Hugh Jackman at this year's opening Oscar number (performance starts at around the 4.00 mark).
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Based on the 2001 biography Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland written by Gerald Clarke, we expect the biopic to start at the beginning with Garlands rise to fame post-Wizard of Oz and her lifetime struggle with the bottle (both drugs and alcohol). Hathaway, 26, who can look a young twenty something and shouldn't be too difficult to age upwards, will give the biopic a huge scope in the grandeur of the story it could tell. It's undoubtedly Hathaway's most challenging role yet and one which she should be commended for taking on. I know biopics have got a very sour reputation in some quarters of the industry right now, especially those directors who don't tackle the genre when Hollywood decides to make movies about itself, but sometimes, as was the case in Milk, when the stars align, something magical happens.