garlandhathaway
Judy Garland and Ann Hathaway

Last month Harvey Weinstein made a visit to The Howard Stern Show and spilled the beans that Anne Hathaway has signed on to play Judy Garland in an upcoming biopic. So far the IMDb entry for the project Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland has no announced cast is currently described as “In Development”, but according to theHuffington Post, Weinstein has “bought the source material and wants to see it filmed.”

Weinstein claims he had the Les Misérables star in mind from the start. “”There’s no testing,” said Weinstein about the Hathaway casting decision. “She sang like Judy Garland for me, she sings beautifully, she has that look … I think that’ll be a good movie.”.”

Not everyone is happy with the book this film is based on. The main complaint seems to be that biographer Gerald Clarke — who clearly loves his subject — was way too trusting of the stories the Garland told about herself. In life Garland was prone to exaggeration and outright fabrications– and critics complain the Get Happy biographer accepts most of what she said as fact.

Hathaway also will be a polarizing casting decision for Judy Garland fans. It’s great to have a strongly pro-LGBT celebrity take on this role, but recently the actress seems to grate on people, and also she’s such a well known personality that it might be hard for her to disappear in the part like, say, lesser known Tammy Blanchard did in Life With Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows (2001)