December 31, 2005

New York Daily News

It looks like the wheels have fallen off Jennifer Lopez’s planned star vehicle, a flashy film musical version of “Carmen.”
Investors can’t be found to risk $50 million on the project, even though riding-high “Ray” director Taylor Hackford is at the helm.

“‘Carmen’ is on its last legs,” Hackford admitted Thursday in Italy, where he is attending the Capri, Hollywood International Film Festival.

“Studios are so frightened at the moment that they are looking for outside money,” he said. “There is a great deal of fear in Hollywood. Many of the films are not working [at the box office].”

The fictional Carmen, you might recall, is a trampy Spanish dancer who ends up getting filleted by her spurned lover. Hackford thinks that scares off studios who want to keep J.Lo in more family-friendly roles.

“[Carmen] is not a sweet, nice girl. This is a piece about a criminal,” says Hackford, whose musical would not have been derived from the famous Georges Bizet opera.

“We want to do a tough, hard version, but Hollywood thinks the audience [for Jennifer Lopez] is 13-year-old girls. … It has an ending that Hollywood does not like to make.”