DREAMGIRLS casting news? Beyonce as Effie??????

They are nuts, if this comes to fruition.

Beyonce should be Deena!

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Bouncy?? I never even saw her 'superstar' quality as a pop star! Jennifer Holliday really isn't that old to not even be considered! Even Harvey Fierstein over big Bouncy!!

You're right, Margo, but I think there's a difference.

At the time Whitney made all her demands, she was the only African-American female star who had that kind of clout, and the only choice the studios had as far as a "name" for any of the roles. So the ball was in her court.

Beyonce is different. (A) she's not that big of a star, certainly not what Whitney was 15 years ago, and (B) there is a much larger pool of successful African-American singers with "name" recognition to choose from, so Beyonce doesn't have nearly the kind of leverage that Whitney had.

I don't think Condon has to cave for the studio, in this case.

On the plus side, Foxx would be excellent as Curtis or Jimmy (given his current "hotter than hot" status in Hollywood, Curtis is much more likely).

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Yeah as I heard about the project I was thinking who could be in the movie. And I thought about her, but I don't think that she fits in the role of Effi. Is she vocally strong enough????

On the other hand, in 1986, Jennifer Holliday would have been the ONLY choice for Effie, being only 26 years old and still a fairly prominent "name" in R&B circles (remember her recording of "And I Am Telling You..." won her the Grammy for R&B Female in '82 and stayed at #1 on the R&B charts for four weeks and even hit #22 on the Pop charts -- she even collected a second Grammy that year for her performance of "Come Sunday"). Had Whitney been able to be convinced to come on board (a big IF certainly), Holliday and perhaps some other members of the original cast probably would have been asked to repeat their original roles.

If other prominent African American stars were to be included (this was pre-Hammer), they might have included the likes of Larry Fishburne, Danny Glover, Gregory Hines, Lonette McKee, Carl Anderson, not to mention the trio of Tisha Campbell, Tichna Arnold and Michelle Weeks who would have been fresh off of being the girl group in Little Shop of Horrors.

Also, the stars of the '80s, pre-hip-hop world of R&B were much closer in style to the Dreams of the 60s and 70s than Beyonce, Usher and the rest of today's singers (let alone the novices of American Idol) -- I could easily imagine Aretha, Labelle, Chaka, Luther Vandross, Alexander O'Neal, Stephanie Mills, Melba Moore, Donna Summer, George Benson, Gladys Knight, The O'Jay's, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and all manner of other Motown stars of the 60s and 70s who were still producing top 40 hits in the 80s, being able to seemlessly make cameo appearances in the movie of "Dreamgirls" in the Apollo sequences and in other backstage (and even on stage) scenes in the film had it happened in the mid-80s -- unfortunately they're all too old (or dead) now.

The film SHOULD have been done in the 80s. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and we'll have to do the best we can with the post-hip-hop R&B/gospel talent of today, which is VERY different sylistically from Supremes/Dreams-style pop of nearly 40 years ago.

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Updated On: 1/21/05 at 03:54 AM

Taye has C.C. written all over him.

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Beyonce will not be Effie for these reasons.
A: She does not a have a low enough register to pull it off. Despite the fact that she belts almost everything, the girl is a Soprano. Sure, she could do a Pop rendition of And I Am Tellin' You, and it could be a hit, but that voice would not work as the character of Effie.
B: She's too pretty. Curtis would have to leave her for someone prettier, who could sell records by looks. (Kelly Rowland (by looks) as Effie - sure. Going on looks alone, they would have to change the whole story line.
They have so many stars to choose from. I trust that they will make the right choices. You can't take an expensive and elaborate show like this, and ruin it for the film.

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All my fears seem to be coming to pass. Margo is absolutely right- any female "star" who gets attached is going to want to sing "And I Am Telling you" one way or another.

It's an incredibly hard movie to cast- not because of the range or difficulty of the roles, but because of the egos of performers involved. Any studio involved will insist on two things: Effie will be "prettier" than on Broadway and there will be (one way or another) a hit single recording on the soundtrack.

Well, at least no one has floated the idea (yet) of rewriting the script so that Usher can sing "And I Am Telling You..."

Ya know...if Foxx were smart, he'd take Jimmy. It's the showboat role...Oscar No. 2 written all over it. Again, if Beyonce were smart, she'd ask (pray...BEG) for Deena. If they had smart management (and were smart themselves) they would concern themselves with showing themselves off in the best light, instead of taking something because it's the 'lead'.

As for Curtis, I would kill to see Jesse Martin do it. But that, my friends, is a pipe dream.

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No casting is set yet.

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Hahaha, no, PLEASE kvetch! I am just stating (for those who take rumor as fact) that Moviehole and IMDB couldn't possibly be correct, because casting is most certainly not set.

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