Despite Menem’s distaste, the blockbuster “Evita” is finally scheduled to start shooting early next year, 18 years after the show opened. The original musical earned more than $240 million and took Eva Peron’s myth global in nine different languages. The film version was to be directed by Oliver Stone, who went to Argentina last year and got Menem’s promise of access to government and military sites. That put the president under heavy fire from his party, founded nearly 50 years ago by Evita’s husband, President Juan Peron. Claiming he had not known the project was based on the reviled musical (which has never been staged in Argentina), Menem canceled his approval. Stone was later replaced by British director Alan Parker, who has since met several times with Menem and, according to one official, promised to be more “respectful” than Stone.
Still, the Menem administration is reluctant to reject the Parker project–and the cash that comes with it. Officials welcome the jobs that a $50 million production will bring to Argentina’s struggling film industry. The director “will have all our cooperation,” Secretary of Culture Mario O’Donnell told NEWSWEEK last week. But that same day, Menem was telling reporters that “the government is opposed” to the Parker film.
Most galling to Evita’s fans is Parker’s choice to portray her: Madonna. “The idea of Madonna as Evita–it’s stupefying,” says Victor Bo, the Argentine producer behind the second version. Menem approves of Bo’s choice for Evita–local soap-opera star Andrea del Boca. Bo and del Boca met with the president earlier this month and won his support. Bo insists his Evita will not hide her faults. But his work of “passion, love and truth” may well be a whitewash. And with only a $10 million budget, measly by Hollywood standards, and no solid financing yet, they may be the ones Argentines should cry for.
