The long-awaited Lucille Ball biopic may have a new Lucy and Desi Arnaz.
Variety reports that Nicole Kidman, 53, and Javier Bardem, 51, are in talks to play the couple, who starred in “I Love Lucy” and were also powerful Hollywood producers in a film that is about to be released.
Aaron Sorkin will direct the film, entitled “Being the Ricardos”, which he also wrote.
Cate Blanchett was originally linked to the project in 2017, when Amazon acquired it. Ball has been played on TV and on stage before by Gillian Anderson and Sarah Drew.
Frances Fisher played Ball in the only other film entirely about her life, Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter, from 1991, which was criticized by critics.
It is said that Sorkin’s film takes place during a reading at the Monday night table and a live audience filming of an episode of “I Love Lucy”, when the relationship between Lucy and Desi almost falls apart.
Ball died in 1989 at 77, while Arnaz died in 1986 at 69.
“Being the Ricardos” has no release date yet, and most productions are suspended in Hollywood during the coronavirus pandemic.