Singer Mya has joined Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski and John C. Reilly in Miramax Films’ musical feature “Chicago.”
Mya, who has released two albums on Interscope Records since 1998, is currently in Toronto rehearsing with the rest of the cast for her supporting role in the Rob Marshall-directed film. Shooting is to start Dec. 12, with a scheduled Christmas 2002 bow.
In the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, Mya will star as Mona, one of the cell block prisoners guilty of murder. The pop/R&B songstress will also be featured singing and dancing in a solo section during the “Cell Block Tango” sequence.
Bill Condon scripted the adaptation of the Broadway musical, and sources said his take is a completely new and stylized one in which all of the original parts have been rewritten. Marty Richards and Harvey Weinstein are producing along with executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
Mya’s “Chicago” outing won’t be her first foray into the film business. She made her feature film debut in the Michael Rymer-directed “In Too Deep,” a 1999 movie co-starring LL Cool J and Omar Epps that was also released by Miramax.
Earlier this year, she teamed with Christina Aguilera, Pink and Lil’ Kim on the No. 1 single “Lady Marmalade” on the soundtrack to 20th Century Fox’s “Moulin Rouge” and has also contributed to the film soundtracks of “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” “The Rugrats Movie” and “Bulworth.”
More recently, Mya, who is repped by WMA and CD Enterprises, performed at the “Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration.” Next year, she plans to follow up her sophomore CD, “Fear of Flying,” with the release of her third CD for Interscope.
