Trailer
Plot summary
Guido Contini is a film director in Rome at the Cinecittà studios, and he has just turned fifty and cannot write. His new picture, Italia, goes before the cameras in ten days, and he has no script, no story, and nothing to tell the press, whose questions he dodges. He takes a room at the Bellavista, a spa hotel by the sea, and the women of his life come back to him there: Luisa, his wife; Claudia, his leading actress; Carla, his mistress; Lilli, the costume designer he confides in; Stephanie, a fashion journalist from America; Saraghina, a prostitute from his boyhood; and his Mamma. Carla telephones, then arrives to stay, and he hides her in a shabby pensione. His producer Dante moves the crew into the same hotel.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Nine (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Music supervisor Matt Sullivan recalled being called with Rob into Daniel's dressing room at Shepperton Studios, which was designed as a 1960s film director's office: smoking a cigarette, in full outfit and in character, the actor told them how he wanted the number he was performing, talking to them as Guido Contini.
- Nine's schedule required Kidman to begin rehearsals just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter. Kidman said she accepted the film because she was allowed to bring her daughter to the set, and the other women who worked on it helped her babysit the baby.
- Marion Cotillard originally auditioned for the role of Lilli, singing the song "Claudia" in her first audition. After her second audition she was asked back for the role of Luisa, and got the part in her third audition after singing "My Husband Makes Movies".
- Catherine Zeta-Jones turned down the role of Claudia when director Rob Marshall refused to expand it for the film, and Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Keira Knightley and Kate Hudson were all considered as possible replacements.
- Daniel Day-Lewis was in talks to star as Guido Contini, the film's lead character, only after Javier Bardem dropped out due to exhaustion.
- Kate Hudson was cast in a role created specifically for her that had not been featured in the Broadway show; Anne Hathaway and Sienna Miller had both auditioned for the role of Stephanie, which ended up going to Hudson.
- Antonio Banderas, who had starred in the Broadway revival, said he was disappointed at not being cast in the film, but that he thought the trailer looked great and wished the best for everyone involved.
- Nine was a commercial failure: it grossed $19 million domestically and less than $54 million worldwide, against an $80 million budget.
