Renée Zellweger to play gay icon Judy Garland in new film biopic ‘Judy’
By Will Stroude
Renée Zellweger to play Judy Garland in a brand new film biopic based on the late actress and gay icon’s final months.
Bridget Jones’s Diary star Zellweger, 48, will star in the London-set Judy, set to go into production in February next year.
Directed by acclaimed theatre director Rupert Goold, the film will be set in the months after Garland’s arrival in London in late 1968 for a five-week run of sell-out shows, and according to producers will include some of the troubled icon’s best-loved songs.
As well as chronicling her iconic battles with management and her relationship with fans, Judy will delve into her relationship with her soon-to-be fifth husband, nightclub manager Mickey Deans, who she married in March 1969.
Scripted by Tom Edge (The Crown) and produced by BAFTA winner David Livingstone (Pride), the film will document The Wizard of Oz star’s turbulent final months prior to her death in Chelsea from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 47.
Judy will mark Zellweger’s fifth movie role since the star took an extended six-year break from acting in 2010.
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