At first I really resisted the idea of Blanchett, but Henrik's comparison to Joanna Gleason made me think that Blanchett might be able to find humor in the most surprising moments the way Gleason so beautifully did. She's someone that I'd be happy to see either as the Witch or as the Baker's Wife. I wonder if she'd be hesitant to get involved in another fantasy film with THE HOBBIT coming out during the holidays but the Sondheim factor might interest her.
I love Nicole Kidman and her performance in MOULIN ROUGE defines the term "star turn," she's mesmerizing in every way in that film (and in so many others, she's one of the best actresses of her generation) but I completely agree she lacks the earthiness necessary to make the Baker's Wife work, and I'm not sure she'd be particularly funny as the Witch either. Besides, I doubt she's dying to revisit the NINE experience, she also seemed very self-depricating when talking about her singing voice so I wonder if she'd even be interested in singing Sondheim after she was so heavily criticized for NINE.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"