According to The Wrap, Cate Blanchett will play Hollywood comedy legend Lucille Ball in a new biopic to be produced by Ball’s children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. What’s more, the screenplay is being written by Emmy and Oscar champ Aaron Sorkin. The film will chronicle Ball’s 20-year-marriage to her “I Love Lucy” co-star Desi Arnaz.
Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara simmer in ‘Carol’ trailer
Lucille Ball never won an Oscar – she wasn’t even nominated – but she was nevertheless one of the most beloved stars of the 20th century, winning four Emmys as well as the TV academy’s Governors Award in 1989.
The chameleon Blanchett won her first Oscar playing another Hollywood icon, Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator” (2004). She won another Oscar for playing the fictional title role in Woody Allen‘s “Blue Jasmine” (2013). The Australian actress has been nominated six times, and is strongly favored for a seventh bid this year for her role in the acclaimed Cannes hit “Carol.”
Aaron Sorkin has his own impressive awards history, winning six Emmys for “The West Wing” – including four for Best Drama Series – and then winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Social Network” (2010). He was nominated again in the same category for his script for the sports drama “Moneyball” (2011). He could be back in the running for a third time this year for penning another true story: “Steve Jobs.”
Our forum posters are already dissecting this exciting bit of casting news. Read some of their comments below and click here to join the discussion in our forums. Use our drag-and-drop menu at the bottom of this post to let us know if you think Blanchett will win Oscar this year for “Carol.”
AMG: Potential Oscar number-three (or four based on how “Carol” goes)? Nomination is looking strong at least on paper.
24Emmy: I will eat this up like no other. I’m curious to see who they get to play Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley.
DamianWayne: The perfect choice to play Desi is (the bae) Oscar Isaac.
KyleBailey: Yeah this sounds awesome. Kind of a weird project for Sorkin. I would love Isaac as Desi!
Experts’ early Oscar predictions: ‘Joy,’ ‘The Revenant,’ Leo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett …
Make your Oscar predictions and you could earn a place of honor on our leaderboard and a starring role in next year’s Top 24 Users (the two dozen folks who do the best predicting this year’s Oscar nominations).
Meet the guy who topped our leaderboard predicting the Oscar nominations last year — and learn how he did it and how you can be our next Gold Derby superstar.
Last year, our Top 24 Users led the way with an accuracy rate of 76.67% when it came to predicting the Oscar nominations. Next up were Gold Derby’s Editors with 74.44%, followed by the Experts with 71.11% and all Users with 68.09%. (Click on any of these groups to see what they got right and wrong last year.)
Which group will be victorious this year?
As some of our Users turn out to be our smartest prognosticators, it’s important that you give us your predictions. Your picks influence our Users racetrack odds, which also factor into our official combined odds.
Photo: Cate Blanchett at Cannes Film Festival. Credit: Matt Baron/BEI/REX
Photo: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Credit: Moviestore/REX
