Theatre News

Glenn Close says Sunset Boulevard film is back on

The film has seemingly been in the pipeline for longer than WhatsOnStage’s existence

Alex Wood

Alex Wood

| Nationwide |

6 May 2024

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Glenn Close, © Dan Wooller

There is something utterly admirable about Glenn Close’s dedication to the new movie version of Sunset Boulevard. 

Despite numerous suggestions that the project had stalled or shuttered, Close has issued a new statement willing the film into existence. Speaking to US Weekly, Close said: “It’s moving forward…The movie is in the works and I’m not giving up on that one.”

The iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton musical follows a hasbeen movie star, Normal Desmond, who begins an affair with a young writer, only for her delusions to be shattered catastrophically.

The show was recently revived to critical, audience and awards acclaim with Nicole Scherzinger as Desmond, directed by Jamie Lloyd.

Close continued: “It’s so beautiful to me that she’s always still so relevant. The time passes, but that character is always important,” she said. “We’re trying to find a director, we have a great script. … That character of Norma is so heartbreakingly beautiful and will never not have relevance, it’s been a great blessing to play her and I’m not willing to let her go yet without one more tribute.”

Back in 2021, speaking to Variety, she resolutely said  “I feel if I could just bring her home to the movies, I don’t give a sh*t what I do for the rest of my life. I’ll play grandmothers until I die.”

However, the most exciting tidbit of Close’s admission was her revelation that she “hopes to be shooting it later this summer.” No word of a release date as of yet, so we cling to breadcrumbs with fervent desperation.

Set over a turbulent New Year’s period in 1940s Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard is a tale of romance, glamour and obsession. It is based on the ’50s Billy Wilder classic.

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