What about Winona Ryder as Allegra Kent?

Marion Cotillard perhaps for Verdy.

Linda Hunt as Elise Reiman.

Cate Blanchett for ...? Verdy? Giggled when I saw her evil Ruskie in the latest Raiders of the Lost Ark spinoff.

Some more ideas for actresses to play older dancers:
Charlotte Rampling (*so* versatile, and a French speaker--maybe for older Verdy?)
Geraldine Chaplin (as the older Doubrovska?)--she's played a dancer before, notably in Almodovar's Talk to Her (do I have the title right?)
Helen Mirren (she can do Russian--she *is* part Russian, isn't she?)
Leslie Ann Warren as Allegra today!

I'd rather see a Balanchine movie of his early years. His time at the Mariinsky, him experimenting with his own choreography and getting rejected by TPTB, him striking out on his own and joining the Ballet Russes. The movie could end with the premiere of Apollo, the Ballet That Changed The World. I feel like the later stuff would be more soap opera-ish, and not necessarily more interesting. I'd love to see what a good writer could do with Diaghilev, Danilova, Lifar, Spessivtseva, etc.

canbelto, it's a very interesting idea and would have the advantage of allowing us to have a glimpse of the Bolshevik Revolution. (It worked for Dr. Zhivago.).

The finale -- the culmination, the zenith of it all -- becomes B's creation of a great work of art.

Question: how do you convince the audience that Apollo actually has all that much significance? Ballet Talk members certainly understand and would probably agree. But ... would it convince your average film audience, even a fairly high-brow audience? What if they don't like the ballet or don't experience it as all that revolutionary or triumphant?

An early years movie appeals to me a lot, too. I think doing it with Balanchine as an equal, or even minor, character, like an Altman cast, might work. Balanchine caused mischief but he wasn't a drama queen and did seem to vanish into the background at social functions. The lives of Lifar and Kochno and Alice Marks and the others could be out front and Balanchine could be the observer.

A small movie would make the four character Apollo seem larger--though between 1925 and 1929 Balanchine did about 40 ballets, so Apollo was just one of many. By the thirties it was considered dated.

A movie with the tone of one by Rene Clair (Le Million) or Jean Renoir (Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion) or Jacques Becker (Furbellows, Casque d'Or) might serve that period--and Apollo--well.

Maybe with a little flavor of Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvey too.

If a movie is well-done, you wouldn't have to convince the audience of Apollo's significance. The audience would be invested enough in Balanchine, and the drama-filled backstage world of the Ballet Russes, to know that Mr. B has "made it big" by the end of the movie. Lifar could be played as the company's preening egotistical star, Diaghilev as the tyrannical boss, Danilova as the love interest. It could have a brief afterwards that says "George went on to become the greatest choreographer of the 20th century. Diaghilev died suddenly in 1929." And so on.

Agreed. If a movie audience can be made to believe that "Eddy" from The River is a "new, revolutionary solo" in The Turning Point, they should have no trouble swallowing that "Apollon Musagéte/Apollo" is as important as it is!

If you're talking doing the Balanchine story as a single movie, your suggestion works EXTREMELY well indeed. This will allow the producers to film a LOT in both Paris and Saint Petersburg, and has enough narrow focus that we could do what you suggested as a single movie lasting under 180 minutes.

(EDIT: I would start the story right at the time he enters the Imperial Ballet School in 1913 and continue all the way to the world premiere of Balanchine's first major success as a choreographer, Apollo, like you suggested. Even this short period was one of tremendous change and excitement, as Balanchine lived through the travails of the Russian Revolution, dealing with Soviet authorities, his defection to the West, joining the Ballet Russes, and beginning his legendary career as the arguably the greatest ballet choreographer since Marius Petipa.)

HOWEVER, they'll have to be really careful about the script for this movie. Does anyone remember the legendary movie The Red Shoes? Despite the disclaimer in the front of the movie, many have said it's a disguised version of the history of the Ballet Russes. We want to make sure the script for such a movie doesn't end up being a semi-de facto remake of The Red Shoes.

There seems to be a consensus forming. We need TWO -- or maybe Three -- projects at least:

-- a mini-series covering "The Life and Loves";
-- something smaller and more artistic that focuses on single period of time (canbelto's being the most artistic)
-- and, as another feature-length possibility, the Suzanne Farrell Story.

I'd like to throw my hat in as the films Director. My first hire would be Judy Kinsberg as Executive Producer.

If the movie goes epic (and I think it could even stopping at 1929), then what about Baz Luhrmann--the Ken Russell of the new millennium?