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The 2006 film of Dreamgirls spent 25 years in development. David Geffen, who co-financed the 1981 Broadway show that won six Tony Awards, guarded the rights to protect director Michael Bennett, who died in 1987. A late-1980s deal with Whitney Houston as Deena collapsed when she wanted Effie’s showstoppers, including And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going. In the late 1990s Warner Bros. planned a version with Lauryn Hill as Deena and Kelly Price as Effie, then dropped it after the Frankie Lymon film Why Do Fools Fall in Love flopped. After Chicago’s success, its screenwriter Bill Condon won Geffen over.

Jamie Foxx turned down Curtis Taylor Jr. over salary, then took less once Eddie Murphy and Beyonce, who had to screen test, were cast. Condon auditioned 783 women for Effie and chose American Idol alum Jennifer Hudson over Fantasia Barrino. Beyonce dropped 20 pounds on a liquid diet while Hudson gained 20, and Condon held private sessions telling Hudson to arrive late and act out to find Effie’s resentment. The film, budgeted at about $75 million to $80 million, grossed over $155 million and drew eight Oscar nominations, the most that year, without a Best Picture or Best Director nod.

• Filming And I Am Telling You took four days instead of one, as Hudson sang live until her voice gave out.
• Album covers for the fictional Dreams copied real Supremes records, and a prop Martin Luther King Jr. LP matched a 1963 Motown release.
• Smokey Robinson objected to Curtis’s payola and mob-loan story as a slur on Berry Gordy.
• DreamWorks and Paramount publicly apologized to Gordy and Motown alumni about a week before the Oscars.
• Hudson won Best Supporting Actress in her film debut, while Murphy lost Best Supporting Actor to Alan Arkin.