"If the opportunity arose where I could sing in a movie, I would jump at it," Anne Hathaway remarked when we met earlier this year. A soprano who has sung on stage, she said she was "hugely disappointed" when contractual conflicts prevented her from costarring in The Phantom of the Operascreen musical. Now the opportunity to sing in a movie has arisen again, and Hathaway is jumping at it.

The actress, an Oscar nominee this year for Rachel Getting Married, has landed the starring role in Get Happy, the ironically titled biopic of troubled singer and actress Judy Garland. It's based on the biography of the same title by Capoteauthor Gerald Clarke.

Born Frances Ethel Gumm, Garland was signed to a movie contract at MGM when she was 13 and died at the age of 47 in 1969. She starred in such classic movies as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louisand the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, and was acclaimed for her concert performances. She was married five times and suffered from addiction and mental health problems.

Garland has already been the subject of the 2001 TV drama, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which won nine Emmy awards, including one each for Judy Davis and Tammy Blanchard, who played Garland at different ages. She was also played by Tony Award nominee Andrea McArdle in the 1978 TV movie Rainbow.