However, there were a couple of opportunities for casting major talents who would be new to the project. The role of Ulla, Bialystock and Bloom’s luscious Swedish secretary / slash / receptionist, was the perfect showcase for an actress to demonstrate her skills at comedy, singing and dancing. Everyone agreed that Uma Thurman—red-hot from her roles in Kill Bill: Vols. I and II and Oscar®-nominated for Pulp Fiction—could make the part her own. And to play the wildly demented Hitler-loving playwright, Franz Liebkind, none other than Hollywood’s top comic actor, Will Ferrell, was given the chance to broaden his range with the role of the singing and dancing Nazi.
With Brooks producing, along with his frequent associate JONATHAN SANGER (The Elephant Man, Vanilla Sky), from a screenplay by Brooks and Meehan, the movie classic that became a Broadway sensation is now a comedy-musical movie event.
Jokes Brooks, “First it was a movie, then it was a Broadway musical, now it’s going to be a Broadway musical movie. I think the next thing will probably be claymation.”
Among the behind-the-scenes talent assembled to bring The Producers back to the screen are co-producer AMY HERMAN (Analyze That), cinematographers JOHN BAILEY (As Good as It Gets) and CHARLES MINSKY (Pretty Woman), production designer MARK FRIEDBERG (Far From Heaven), costume designer WILLIAM IVEY LONG (Broadway’s Nine, La Cage Aux Folles) and film editor STEVEN WEISBERG (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
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