Oliver Stone is reported to be in final negotiations to direct a remake of A Star is Born. The Warner Bros production would re-team the loose-cannon director with actor Jamie Foxx, who is currently starring as a hotshot quarterback in Stone's sporting saga Any Given Sunday.
Previously filmed in 1937, 1954 and 1976, A Star is Born has become something of a Hollywood perennial, with its romantic tale about the see-sawing fortunes of a rising young actress and an established movie star on the wane.
Its most notable interpretation is George Cukor's glitzy 50s treatment, starring James Mason and Judy Garland, while the reviled 70s version starred Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson and changed the tale's backdrop from the movies to MOR rock.
Stone's version is said to be an update on the original tale, and the involvement of Afro-American actor Foxx looks set to put a new racial spin on the tale. The script has been written by Stephen Rivele and Christoper Wilkinson, who worked on Stone's 1995 film Nixon.
For Stone, the project looks like another step on his route back into the movie mainstream. Having established himself as one of Hollywood's more respected film-makers with pictures like Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, Stone veered increasingly into bombastic left field with Natural Born Killers, Nixon and U-turn, all of which brought progressively diminishing returns at the box office.
The vigorous but conventional Any Given Sunday has shown Hollywood's money men that he can still be trusted to direct a star-driven, big-budget production that appeals to as broad audience as possible. Assuming he keeps a cool head on his shoulders, A Star is Born should merely underline the fact.
