There have been a lot of re-telling of classic stories and fairytales lately, especially in the movies. Now, the Broadway musical that seemed to set this whole trend off will be flying to the silver screen. Wicked, the backstory of the Wizard of Oz (with a few modifications) is aiming to be in theaters sometime in 2016 Producer Marc Platt recently said.
He was recently asked about the film by Film Divider and he had this response on a 2016 release:
It’s a loose goal. But the bar is very high for the creators of Wicked. Our show is still so strong everywhere, and we just set a record in both London and Edinburgh last week, and in Los Angeles, and we did on Broadway. Audiences enjoy that show so much that we are intending to move forward on the movie but aren’t going to do so until we’re satisfied in the material we have as a screenplay, and that the film will be every bit as satisfying as what we have on the stage.
This wasn’t the only information he revealed though. He also revealed that director Stephen Daldry has taken the director’s chair. He has worked on Billy Elliot, The Reader, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to name a few. He is being joined by Winnie Holzman who is writing the screenplay. She wrote the original book for Wicked that accompanied the musical. There is no news in regards to cast at this point or whether Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth will return to their original roles of the Elphaba and Glinda (my hunch is they will be recast but we’ll see).
It’s Stephen Daldry. He’s been on for a year or two. But it’s in process. 2016 is the goal, but I don’t know whether we’ll make that goal or not. We will make the movie, but like I said, the bar is really high. We’re going to scrutinise our work on the screenplay and our prep on the movie, and when we feel like it’s ready, okay. We’re not going to shoot a release date is what I’m saying. It’s in the works, it’s not in a rush.
It took 27 years to make Into the Woods into a film from its original stage production, and 30 years with Les Mis. Some things take time for a reason.
Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz first came to the Broadway stage on October 30, 2003. It was based off of the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The music and lyrics were by Stephen Schwartz with the book for the musical being written by Winnie Holzman. The Broadway production won three Tony awards, six Drama Desk Awards, and the cast album won a Grammy Award. It currently holds the distinction of being the 11th longest running Broadway show in history.
