Al Pacino to play Phil Spector in movie

[John Etherington]

Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13517622

[bridger15]

Further to John's post - Helen Mirren has replaced Bette Midler in the Phil Spector movie.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... ler-212530

Helen Mirren Replaces Bette Midler in Phil Spector Pic at HBO
The Oscar and Emmy winner will star opposite Al Pacino in the project revolving around the music producer and his attorney.

7/18/2011 by Lesley Goldberg

Helen Mirren has replaced Bette Midler in HBO Films’ Phil Spector telefilm.

Midler was forced to bow out of the project, written and directed by David Mamet, as it was already in production after suffering a herniated disc that may require surgery.

Oscar winner Mirren (The Queen) will play Linda Kenney Baden, a defense attorney who represented the producer during his first trial for murder, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Al Pacino will play Spector.

Barry Levinson will executive produce alongside Mamet and Pacino. The cast includes Arrested Development’s Jeffrey Tambor, who will play Bruce Cutler, an attorney on Spector’s defense team.

Mirren won an Emmy in 2005 for HBO’s miniseries Elizabeth I; her television work also includes her Emmy-winning performance in the 2006 telefilm Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act, where she reprised her role as Detective Jane Tennison.

NBC is rebooting the Prime Suspect series this fall with Maria Bello stepping into the role made famous by Mirren.

And the Daily Mail online (Aug 12/11) published an article with quite the collection of photographs and included this quote:

The singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who was threatened at gunpoint by Spector, spoke of his ‘megalomania and insanity’. He added that Spector had ‘an intolerable devotion to guns’ and would change weapons to match his outfits up to four times a day.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... s-say.html

---Arlene