‘Evita’: Full Circle?

Disney officials are so impressed with Madonna’s breathless performance in “Dick Tracy” that they’re seriously going after a project for her that she’s been pursuing for years--”Evita.”

Sources tell us that the studio is negotiating for “Evita” film rights with producer Robert Stigwood and Jerry Weintraub--whose troubled company was the last home for the project--and with the creators of the stage opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Although Stigwood and Disney decline to comment, a studio official admits, “We’ve been talking about doing it with Madonna.”

Stigwood would still be attached, but Oliver Stone, who had been set to direct Meryl Streep in the Weintraub production last year, is now off the project.

Weintraub had planned a $35-million budget, but sources tell us Disney thinks it can bring in the picture at $15-$18 million.

The project first got a foot in Hollywood in 1981 at Paramount, where current Disney bosses Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg then toiled. It’s since been through four film companies and half a dozen directors.

Madonna reportedly wanted the part so badly that she once showed up for a meeting with Stigwood dressed as Eva Peron, the title character and legendary wife of Argentina’s late dictator, Juan Peron.