Anne Hathaway to play Judy Garland on screen and stage

If Hollywood’s embrace of Anne Hathaway as a marquee star was ever in question, it isn’t now. The actress has been tapped to play Judy Garland in both screen and stage versions of Get Happy, the 2001 biography of the late star.

Garland has a complex and well-mined legacy, but according to Variety, The Weinstein Company purchased rights to this particular biography and developed it because of exclusive details and insight into the actress.

The sister stage-and-film deals highlight both the scope of the project and also the risk, particularly for Hathaway. Garland’s devotees are among the more aggressive followers (and protectionists) of any old-school icon, and Hathaway, despite her plush awards run this year, remains untested as the sole anchor of a high-risk prestige undertaking like this. That said, industry wisdom has long held her to be a likely convert to Broadway, and Get Happy provides an opportunity for that with familiar players to broker the deal.

Neither the film nor stage rendition has a helmer, but speculation has naturally turned to artists who straddle both mediums, such as Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), who incidentally featured Hathaway in a musical number this year at the Oscars.

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