Streisand working on first directing project since ’96

Singer and actress Barbra Streisand is hoping to get back behind the camera and direct her first movie in 16 years, but has yet to raise all the money for it.

Streisand’s spokesman on Thursday confirmed reports that the “Funny Girl” actress wants to direct “Skinny and Cat,” a love story about late writer Erskine Caldwell and his late wife, American photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.

It would be Streisand’s first directing project since “The Mirror Has Two Faces” in 1996, and Oscar-winning stars Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett are reportedly attached to play the leads.

Her spokesman said however that the project has not been given the go-ahead yet because of financing issues.

Streisand, 70, who made her directing debut in 1983 with “Yentl,” told the Los Angeles Times last week it was proving hard to raise the $20 million financing for the film, which has a script written by Linda Yellen.

The actress is also working on a movie adaptation of the stage musical “Gypsy” in which she would star. Hollywood studio Universal Pictures said in March that “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes would adapt the Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents musical for the screen, but did not announce a director or a start date for filming.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – (Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Walsh)