Shirley MacLaine To Star in Lifetime’s Coco Chanel Biopic
Original Movie Set For September Debut
By Larry Barrett -- Multichannel News, 8/5/2008 5:59:00 AM
Academy Award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine takes on the role of haute couture giant Coco Chanel in a three-hour Lifetime original movie scheduled to premiere Sept. 13 at 8 p.m. ET.
MacLaine, a six-time Oscar nominee, stars in the title role of the “rags-to-riches” tale of the woman named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Heroes) will co-star as Marc Bouchier, Chanel’s confidante and business associate.
Network officials expect Coco Chanel to be the latest in a successful run of original movies including the likes of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, which was Lifetime’s most-watched original movie since 1995, and Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, an original movie that premiered Aug. 2 and garnered an average of more than 3 million viewers.
Coco Chanel is a Lux Vide SpA, Pampa Productions and Alchemy Television Group Production, in association with RAI, France 2 and Lifetime Networks. Carrie Stein (White Nights), Matilde Bernabei (War and Peace) and Simon Vaughan (Wallis & Edward) served as executive producers. Luca Bernabei (Pope John Paul II) served as the producer and Andrea Asimow (The Heartbreak Kid) was associate producer. Christian Duguay (Human Trafficking, Hitler: The Rise of Evil and Joan of Arc) directed from a script written by Enrico Medioli (Once Upon a Time in America).
