'Downton Abbey' creator to adapt 'Gypsy'

Most Hollywood remakes and adaptations these days involve pretty familiar properties. Current Broadway hits, movies made in the 1980s--it seems like the window for remakes is getting shorter and shorter.So I'm happily surprised to report that Universal has a movie adaptation of Gypsy on the table. Based on a 1957 memoir, it first became a successful Broadway musical in 1959 and then a 1962 film starring Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell. A 2008 Broadway revival starring Patti LuPone won several Tonys. The remake will team up some of Hollywood's legends and newly renowned.

Fans of "Downton Abbey" may be a little surprised that the show's creator, 62-year-old Julian Fellowes, will write the adaptation of the musical. The writer/actor generally focuses on historical British pieces,  so writing a story about an American burlesque performer and her stage mom is quite a departure.

What really sells this adaptation is casting. Barbra Streisand will play the musical's legendary stage mom of all stage moms. The character is considered the gold standard of stage mom behavior, with plenty of negative qualities usually on display only during an episode of TLC's "Toddlers and Tiaras."

Universal is currently shepherding this project, though it previously had a home at Warner Bros. The adaptation was held up in the past due to the reservations of the writer of the book, Arthur Laurents. He passed away last May, so the producers will no longer have to deal with his opposition.

If Gypsy can reel in a new audience with material that's as compelling as its previous iterations, I think the movie will be a success. The backstage musical is one of the best ways to integrate music into a film, and audiences deserve better than dreck like Burlesque.