A Movie About Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Is Coming and May Have Found Its Stars

From The Pioneer Woman

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem may be closing in on portraying one of Old Hollywood's most iconic couples.

Deadline reports that the pair are in negotiations to star as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, respectively, in the upcoming film Being the Ricardos, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. The feature will follow the famous pair over the course of a week of production for I Love Lucy, from a table read on Monday to a live-audience filming that Friday. But, "Lucy and Desi face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage," Deadline teases.

There is no release date or tentative production schedule for the film yet, given the delays across the industry caused by the pandemic. However, we do know that Amazon Studios is behind the project, which makes it likely that we'll be able to stream the feature on Prime Video when it is released. Ball and Arnaz's real children, Lucie and Desi Arnaz, Jr., are listed executive producers.

Being the Ricardos, formerly titled Lucy and Desi, has been in the works for a while now. While Bardem was in consideration for the role of Arnaz, it was Cate Blanchett was originally cast as Ball back in 2017.

Wed in 1940, only six months after they met, Ball and Arnaz had an iconic but famously turbulent marriage. Four years later, Ball filed for divorce after Arnaz's reported infidelity, but did not complete the proceedings. From 1951 to 1957, they appeared in I Love Lucy, which propelled them both to stardom. In 1960, they actually divorced.