Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnaz’ two children, Lucy Arnaz Jr. and Desi Arnaz Jr., are producing a biopic about their parents, and have enlisted two Academy-friendly folks to help them out.
Aaron Sorkin will write the film, which will focus on the 20-year marriage between (the real-life) Lucy and Desi, and they’ve got a showstopping leading lady to rock Lucy’s red hair and goofy demeanor: Cate Blanchett.
Things are early at Sony’s Escape Artists, where this picture is in development, and neither Blanchett nor Sorkin have confirmed their involvement, but I’m hoping this works out. Sorkin has had his share of perceived missteps (one of which made a fan of Quentin Tarantino), but there’s no doubt that he has a talent for depicting fast-talking, behind-the-scenes shenanigans. He hasn’t really done anything really period (the closest would probably be the early-‘90s environment of CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR and the earlier segments in the upcoming STEVE JOBS), but if anyone could depict a believable, exciting recreation of the I LOVE LUCY set, it’s probably Sorkin.
As for Blanchett, well, she’ll knock it out the park, won’t she? She won one Oscar for playing a prominent mid-20th-century figure with red hair (Katherine Hepburn), and a second for playing a high-strung housewife (well, technically widow) prone to bizarre, delusional behavior (ever watch LUCY?). Plus, she can be funny while also being real, which is going to be crucial when they dig into the offscreen section of Ms. Ball’s life.
Lucy and Desi got married over a decade prior to I LOVE LUCY, a time when the former worked as a contract player in B-pictures (she came close to working with Orson Welles at one point, who noted that the studio “didn’t know what they had”), so we’d see her rise to superstardom and the effect that’d have on her marriage and her legacy. It’s a crazy story, one that could resonate with all the scores of people familiar with Lucy from reruns of her various series, while also showing a different side of the TV star with the depiction of her tumultuous relationship with Desi.
They divorced about 7 years before their studio, Desilu, produced STAR TREK. But I'm still holding out for at least a mention of their involvement, given that it was their faith in the project that kickstarted its now-50-year legacy.
Now, they just gotta find someone to play Arnaz. Got anyone in mind?
