Although filming began of the Christina Aguilera/Cher musical movie, Burlesque, three weeks ago, new casting news is still coming through. The latest to join the cast, according to Variety, is Eric Dane, star of Marley & Me and X-Men: The Last Stand, although probably best known to TV audiences as McSteamy in Grey’s Anatomy.
The film itself follows’ Aguilera’s small-town girl, Ali, who dreams big and heads to LA, finding success at a neo-burlesque club, where he hones her singing and dancing skills under the tutelage of the club’s owner, a former dancer called Tess, played by Cher.
It looks like Dane is coming in as a potential romantic interest, although of the slimy sort that Aguilera will have to realise isn’t right for her. He’ll play Marcus, a businessman who offers to buy Tess out of the burlesque club and vies for Ali’s heart. As the film also stars Cam Gigandet as a cheeky chappy barman, it’s not too difficult to work out which of the man the audience is supposed to root for Ali to get together with.
Also starring Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming and Kristen Bell, the Steve Antin (brother of Pussycat Dolls founder Robert Antin) written and directed Burlesque is filming in LA now, with a relase due towards the end of next year. Although the more we hear about the film, the more it sounds like an endless stream of follow-your-dreams cliches (who’s betting there’ll be the inevitable scene where Ali’s parents walk into the club and discover their daughter isn’t an accountant like she said, and is actually a fancy stripper), as well as a weak excuse for some scantily clad women, we can’t help being rather intrigued. It’s either going to be a gloriously camp riot, or else an almost unimaginably bad dud.