What happened
Madonna reportedly is trying to relaunch her acting career by remaking the 1942 classic Casablanca, and starring in the role made famous by Ingrid Bergman. But so far Hollywood studio executives have rejected the idea. (AOL News)
What the commentators said
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“And people thought that ‘Like a Virgin’ was blasphemous,” said Howard Gensler in The Philadelphia Inquirer (free registration). Madonna’s film career has “already produced more turkeys than Butterball,” and now she wants to butcher one of the greatest films of all time? “Oh, it will be set in Iraq. We wish it were an April Fool's joke.”
Every time I hear a rumor as outrageous as this one “my inner core of movie fandom shudders,” said Monika Bartyzel in the Cinematical blog. But “what if THIS is the one that's not a rumor?” The London Daily Mail insists that Madonna is determined to make this film despite the less-than-enthusiastic reception, and a laundry list of reasons it’s a bad idea. For one thing, Madonna is nearly 50, “and Ingrid Bergman was much, much younger.”
Madonna has never been one to “give up easily,” said James Hirsen in Newsmax.com. And, who knows, remaking a classic—“one with plot, depth, and built-in appeal to the public”—might be just the thing to help her “establish her acting creds” after a string of flops, including Shanghai Surprise, Body of Evidence, and Swept Away. The role she reportedly wants—that of Ilsa Lund, the big love of the Bogart’s Rick—certainly “caused Ingrid Bergman’s career to skyrocket.”
