Based on the Tony Award-winning musical that opened on Broadway in 1982, the new film Nine marks the latest collaboration between director Rob Marshall and cinematographer Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS, who first teamed on Chicago (AC Feb. ’03). The story, inspired by Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½, concerns a movie director, Guido Contini (played by Daniel Day-Lewis), whose professional and personal crises collide through a series of real and imagined encounters with the significant women in his life.    

“Rob knew he wanted to make another musical, and he was considering a number of different projects,” recalls Beebe, who also shot Memoirs of a Geisha for the director (AC Jan. ’06). “Nine is essentially a narrative drama with an amazing cast [including Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren], and the material had a lot of visual potential. Guido is a famous but tortured director who can’t cope with situations of his own making. He’s on the verge of a breakdown, and his escape into fantasy becomes our language to transition between musical numbers and the unfolding drama.”  

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