MUMBAI: Nicole Kidman is in talks to portray Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco, the project that centers on the actress-turned-princess. The actress is in the process of attaching herself to what is being envisioned as a $30 million production and is being compared in tone to The King‘s Speech.
Monaco is the second high-profile project in the works featuring midcentury Hollywood stars. The film isn‘t a biopic and instead focuses on a six-month period in 1962 when the city-state got into a heated dispute with France, which grew tired of the petite principality being a tax haven.Kelly, still relatively new in her role as princess, maneuvered behind the scenes to save Monaco from a coup.
Olivier Dahan, known for the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en rose, is helming the period film. Le Pogam is producing and financing the picture. CAA is handling domestic rights and Wild Bunch is selling international.
Kelly was an actress who broke through playing opposite Gary Cooper in 1952’s High Noon and quickly became Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite blond with a trio of classic films. She married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1955 and soon retired from acting. Her death in 1982, after suffering astroke and losing control of her car while driving the twisty streets of Monaco, shocked the world. Nearly 100 million people watched her funeral on TV.
