Two Callas biopics on the cards
Two films about famed opera singer Maria Callas, both with screenplays by British writers, are going into production.
Niall Johnson (Keeping Mum [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) has scripted Callas based on the bestselling biography So Proud, So Fragile by Italian author Alfonso Signorini. Italian producer Nicola De Angelis (18 Anni Dopo) owns the biography rights and will co-produce with British producer Stephen Margolis’ Future Films (Cracks [+see also:
trailer
interview: María Valverde
film profile]).
The film will look at the turbulent relationship between Callas and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Penelope Cruz and Anne Hathaway are being considered for the title role.
Meanwhile, Academy Award-winning British screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Vanity Fair, Gosford Park) is scripting another version of the Callas-Onassis love story. Greek Fire is based on the eponymous book by former New York Times investigative journalist-turned-author Nicholas Gage and charts the soprano’s life from the time she met Onassis at a masked ball in Venice until the arrival of Jacqueline Kennedy as a rival to her affections. Eva Mendes is set to star.
American-born Callas was musically educated in Greece and shot to fame in Italy, where she dealt with issues like myopia, fluctuating weight, and a musical rivalry with contemporary chanteuse Renata Tebaldi, besides a lifetime spent in the public eye hounded by the popular press.
Italian director Franco Zeffirelli charted the last days of Callas in Callas Forever [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2002). Callas herself starred in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea (1969).
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