Anne Hathaway to star as Judy Garland

 

Anne Hathaway will play the Wizard of Oz actress, Judy Garland, in stage and screen adaptations of Gerald Clarke’s biography, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland.

Hathaway was Oscar-nominated this year for the film Rachel’s Getting Married. She surprised the audience by singing a duet with host Hugh Jackman.

The director and writer for the productions have not been confirmed.

Harvey Weinstein will produce Get Happy and announced Hathaway’s casting.

He called the actress “brilliantly talented” and said: “She will be a true class act in this challenging role.”

The filmmakers will have to find some way to reconcile the height difference between Garland, who stood 5 feet tall, and Hathaway, who is about 5 foot, 8 inches tall.

Judy Garland was signed to a Hollywood studio as a child and made dozens of films for MGM. The role which made her famous was Dorothy in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, where she sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

She went on to win a Grammy and collect Oscar nominations for A Star is Born and Judgment at Nuremberg.

Garland had a difficult personal life. She was married five times, tried several times to kill herself and battled drug addiction before dying of an accidental overdose in 1969.