Idina Menzel To Star In ‘Beaches’ Movie For Lifetime — ‘Frozen’ And ‘Rent’ Star Will Play Lead Originally Played By Bette Midler

Popular actress and stage performer Idina Menzel will be taking on a legendary role in her next acting project. The star of Rent and Frozen will play the main lead in the Lifetime television movie remake of Beaches.

The news of Idina Menzel’s upcoming role was confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. According to their report, production for the Beaches television movie will begin next month on August 15. The location of filming will be in Vancouver, Canada. Menzel will play the role of Cecilia Carol Bloom, who is better known by her nickname “C.C.” As for the second main lead character, Hillary Whitney, casting is ongoing. It will be directed by Allison Anders who is known for directing Ring of Fire. The script was written by Bart Baker and Nikole Beckwith, in which the former helped write the script for Honeymoon with Harry and the latter helped write the scripts for Stockholm and Pennsylvania.

For those who do not remember, or possibly do not know about Beaches , it is an American comedy-drama film that was released back in 1988. Based on the novel of the same name written by Iris Rainer Dart, the movie is a story of two friends from different backgrounds whose friendship spans the course of 30 years. Following their serendipitous initial meeting on the Venice Boardwalk, the friends grow up together. C.C. is an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles until she is discovered by a director who gives C.C. her first big chance to make it big. Hillary, on the other hand, is the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own identity. Through the decades, their friendship sustains them including a love triangle, single parenting, and facing one’s mortality.

It does seem natural to cast Idina Menzel as C.C. given the fact the role was originally played by singing legend Bette Midler. It was also mentioned that Menzel will end up singing her version of the movie’s hit song “Wind Beneath My Wings” which became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year back in 1990. It also helped keep Midler in the limelight pertaining to her singing career, though she really did not need it. Idina Menzel will also sing “Glory of Love.”

The green light to film the Beachestelevision movie is bittersweet in a way. The original 1989 Beachesmovie was directed by Garry Marshall and over the past year, he has worked to help make the television movie remake a reality. Sadly, Marshall passed away at the age of 81. It would have been nice for Marshall to see what Lifetime would have done with the remake, a network recognized for remaking another classic movie from 1989, Steel Magnolias , in which they used an all-Black American cast which included Queen Latifah and Phylicia Rashãd, as reported by Deadline. The remake delivered ratings records for the network.

As mentioned earlier, production for Beaches will begin on August 15. By then, the rest of the cast will be filled out. There is currently no news when Beaches will air on Lifetime just yet.