Wicked the Movie Looks at Possible Directors
“Wicked”, one of the best, if not the greatest, musicals ever showcased in Broadway and all over the world is being planned to be turned into a musical film by two of the musical’s creative heads, lyricist Stephen Schwartz, script writer Winnie Holzman, and producer Marc Platt. According to Deadline.com, Universal Pictures is also reported to be on board for the silver screen version of the highly successful musical which tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West long before Dorothy made her journey into the colorful Land of Oz.
As of press time, there is still no confirmation on who is going to direct nor who will be portraying the roles of Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West that were successfully portrayed on stage by Tony awardees Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the original production of the musical.
But reports have surfaced that the producers will probably take their pick between these four directors: James Mangold (“Walk the Line”), Rob Marshall (“Chicago”, “Nine”), Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck”, “Glee”, “Eat, Pray, Love”) and J.J. Abrams (“Lost”, “Mission Impossible III”). In our opinion, any of the first three directors mentioned are acceptable choices as they do have the background and credits to turn a successful theatre musical into a potential movie blockbuster, especially Ryan Murphy, whose musical credits not only include the highly successful TV series “Glee”, but he also happens to have close ties with Chenoweth and Menzel as they both have recurring roles in the series. As for Abrams, it still leaves us dumbfounded as to how his name appeared in the shortlist. Sure, he knows how to turn a long-running TV series and a third action flick installment into a money pot, but this is a musical, and we’ll leave it at that.
On the other hand, Glee’s Lea Michele is reportedly being considered to take on the role of Elphaba not only for her breakout performance in “Glee” or her excellent take on “Defying Gravity” – so good it sounds very similar to the original version sung by Menzel, but most probably for her strikingly close resemblance to Menzel – so close that it was so easy to spot the mother-daughter angle between their characters in “Glee”.
It’s about time “Wicked” is turned into a movie musical, because after three “High School Musical” movies, it’s about time that something so creative and much more relevant graces the musical film genre for a change.
All photos made available via creative commons licensing courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.