Funny Girl (film) to the film was released by Columbia Records in 1968. Isobel Lennart originally wrote "Funny Girl" as a screenplay for a drama film entitled "My Man" for producer Ray Stark, but when he offered it to Mary Martin, she suggested it might work better as a stage musical. Lennart consequently adapted her script for what eventually became a successful Broadway production starring Barbra Streisand. Although she had not made any films, Streisand was Stark's first and only choice to portray Brice onscreen. "I just felt she was too much a part of Fanny, and Fanny was too much a part
Ray Stark went on to produce many notable films from the 1970s to the early 2000s, including "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970), "The Way We Were" (1973), "Murder By Death" (1976), "The Goodbye Girl" (1977), "Seems Like Old Times" (1980), "Annie" (1982), and "Steel Magnolias" (1989). In 1974, Rastar was acquired by Columbia Pictures, which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Pictures, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films, later selling it to Columbia Pictures in 1980. Although stage and film actress Anne Bancroft was the initial first choice to play Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl", (the biopic production