Sigourney Weaver will star as famed burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee in an HBO telepic, says Variety.
“Gypsy and Me” is based on “My G-String Mother: At Home and Backstage With Gypsy Rose Lee,” the memoir written by her son Erik Lee Preminger, who, by the tender age of 12, was acting as her stage manager.
Martin Sherman (Mrs. Henderson Presents) is writing the script.
Weaver will executive produce the film with Dreamgirls producer Laurence Mark. David Blackman also will be involved in a producing capacity.
The film takes place in the late 1950s, when Lee was at the tail end of her striptease career. Lee had decided she was too old to disrobe in front of strangers and hustled to keep up her fame and extravagant lifestyle by becoming a bestselling author, and getting her life story turned into a musical.
Weaver, who is reteaming with Aliens director James Cameron in his 3-D feature Avatar, will shoot the film before year’s end.
