Barbra Streisand to direct film about Catherine the Great

American singer, actress and director Barbra Streisand is set to direct a Catherine the Great biopic.

The historical drama will be Streisand’s first film as director since The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), in which she also starred. The film’s producer will be Gil Netter, best known for The Blind Side (2009) and Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), while the script will be written by Kristina Lauren Anderson.

Catherine the Great, a Prussian princess who married into the Russian royal family, ruled from 1762 to 1796, becoming empress after a coup against her husband, Peter III. The plot of the film is due to focus on Catherine in her younger days.

Numerous films and television programmes have already been made about Catherine, most notably the 1996 film Catherine the Great, starring Catherine Zeta Jones. Earlier this year it was reported that actress Angelina Jolie had bought the film rights to a book about the love affair of Catherine and Prince Grigory Potemkin, Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair by Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Streisand has won multiple Emmy, Grammy and Golden Globe awards. With the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film.

Source: Variety