John Turturro, Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning (Dakota's sister) have all signed up for the big budget ($65 million) fantasy musical Nutcracker - The Untold Story. Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky is helming the film which will of course be based on the famous ballet.
Tim Rice is contributing lyrics to eight new songs using Tchaikovsky's scores, from "The Nutcracker" itself and from his concertos and symphonies. Konchalovsky has written the screenplay with Chris Solimine. Lane gifts the Nutcracker doll to Fanning in 1920s Vienna and Turturro plays the evil Mouse King.
The movie is set to begin filming July 16th. More musicals then! They all have big budgets in place, so they must be expecting them to make some money at the Box Office. Personally, the bore me more than any other film on the planet but I guess they aren't made for me.