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Amazon has scooped up the rights to the Lucille Ball biopic that will star Cate Blanchett and have a script by Aaron Sorkin.

The film will center on the life of the iconic actress, who starred on TV sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life with Lucy. She was nominated for 13 Emmys and won four times, and she also won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979. She was married to actor Desi Arnaz from 1940 to 1960.

The couple's children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., will produce the film along with Escape Artists. Jenna Block will oversee the project for Escape Artists.

Blanchett was most recently seen in Cinderella, Carol and Dan Rather biopic Truth. She will soon be seen in Ocean's Eight and Marvel and Disney’s Thor: Ragnarok. She’s repped by CAA and RGM Artists.

Sorkin wrote the scripts for The Social Network, Moneyball and Steve Jobs. He also wrote the script for Molly's Game, which he also directed, for Sony. He’s repped by WME.

Amazon continues to be very active in the acquisition space, recently acquiring the Black List script about Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, which also is being produced by Escape Artists.

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I’m told that there is already movement toward finding a big star to play Ball’s former husband Desi Arnaz, with names like Javier Bardem in the mix, as well as for Fred and Ethel, the quartet behind one of TV’s classic early sitcoms.

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EXCLUSIVE: Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardemare in negotiations to play Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Amazon and Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, the film about the relationship between the I Love Lucy stars. Having penned the screenplay, Academy Award winner Sorkin also will direct the film from Amazon Studios and Escape Artists.

The film is set during one production week of I Love Lucy — Monday table read through Friday audience filmin g— when Lucy and Desi face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.

Sorkin originally was going to pen the script only, when Cate Blanchett was circling, but after enjoying himself on the drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, he decided to attach himself as a director as well over the summer. After The Trial of the Chicago 7 bowed on Netflix in October, Being the Ricardos began to gain momentum with Kidman and Bardem quickly interest in the couple behind TV’s first family. Deals still need to close for both actors, but even if and when they do, when production will start is still up in the air as the Covid-19 Pandemic continues to push productions throughout the country.

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EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda have been tapped to play William Frawley and Vivian Vance in Amazon and Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, the film about I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Sources add that Arianda’s deal has not yet closed.

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are in final negotiations to play Ball and Arnaz, with Sorkin writing and directing.

Simmons’ character, Frawley, played neighbor Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy. Vance played Fred’s wife and Lucy’s best friend, Ethel Mertz.

The film is set during one production week of I Love Lucy — Monday table read through Friday audience filming — when Lucy and Desi face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.

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You know Lucy and Ricky. Now it's time to meet Lucille and Desi. Here’s a special teaser from Being the Ricardos, in theaters December 10 and on Prime Video December 21.

Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) are threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos in Academy Award®-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin’s behind-the-scenes drama Being the Ricardos. A revealing glimpse of the couple’s complex romantic and professional relationship, the film takes audiences into the writers’ room, onto the soundstage and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy.”

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