Naples. Sophia Loren says she's thrilled to be in Nine, Rob Marshall's star-studded film version of the Broadway musical based on the life of movie great Federico Fellini.
''It's going to be a very exciting experience because I haven't done a musical since 'Carosello Napoletano','' one of a flurry of Italian comedies in the early 1950s that helped get her noticed in Hollywood.
Loren said director Marshall, who scored a big hit with Chicago in 2002, had conceived the role of Fellini's mother with her in mind.
''He wanted me in the film and I'm very happy to be in it,'' said the screen icon, 73, who hasn't made a film since 2004. ''It's every Italian's dream to be in an American musical,'' she enthused. ''I adore music and always liked seeing Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as a kid. Musicals make you feel alive''. Marshall has been rehearsing in London with Loren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench and Marion Cotillard.
Filming is set to start there ''any day now,'' Loren said at the annual Piedigrotta street festival in her home town.