Catherine Zeta-Jones in the FOLLIES film? — Page 2

Having sung "One More Kiss" and knowing how difficult it is, I doubt anyone in Hollywood can do it unless they lower the key. Which would be really sad.

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I can see the character of Heidi being entirely cut.

Which one would be playing young Heidi?

Amanda Seyfried, Ann Hathaway, Emily Rossum???

They should cut it. They should also cut THE ROAD YOU DIDN'T TAKE and THE RIGHT GIRL. And truncate most of the songs by half.

Thank god you weren't Fergies manager.

I always thought "One More Kiss" is the first song that would be plucked.

How much of the Loveland sequence do you think would survive? Or would it all go bye-bye like The Grand Canal in Nine?

Ljay, I would think most people would think the opposite. Since congress passed that edict that all songs in a movie musical have to be justified I would think the Loveland sequence is the only part of the show guaranteed to make it to the screen. I feel like I'm misreading something, because it sounds like Michael Bennett is saying it should be cut. What is Follies is doesn't turn on its ear with Loveland? Old people being nasty to each other for 90 minutes and going home? Do you just mean they should cut the song "Loveland"?

Let's just get this out of the way - I KNOW I have zero objectivity when it comes to this show. I ain't even playing like I don't get sick to my stomach when I think about this movie turning into the modern equivalent of the movie version of a A Little Night Music.

But I will of course share my inevitable thoughts. I disagree with Michael Bennett about cutting The Road You Didn't Take and The Right Girl, if only for the fact that it effectively neuters both Buddy and Ben by neither of them having a song of their own before Loveland. Perhaps In Buddy's Eyes and Road could be more intertwined, I dunno. If Sorkin wants to see the screenplay I once wrote when I was high as a kite, he can give me a ring. Otherwise, I'm just talking out of my ass.

The Whitmans could go (and the Bolero). Ah Paris and Broadway Baby could be trimmed.

While I don't have issues with Aaron Sorkin in theory, I wonder if someone who's known for being talky and didactic in his work is the best person to handle a book that's always been accused of grim and talky. When I was in it, I used to call the Phyllis and Ben, Buddy and Sally scenes between Who's That Woman Could I Leave You "A Bunch of Middle Aged White People Standing Around Sniping."

Okay, gotcha. And I do get your points. I've always thought the Rain on the Roof, etc montage could be cut up and interspersed throughout (I've thought that about One More Kiss, too).

Is Rob Marshall still the rumored director? I just don't want him or Bill Condon to touch this. I have no suggestions for who I'd want, but I know I just don't want THEM.

So many of the songs are cinematic already - with the younger versions floating in and stuff - but I know that too much music on screen causes music fatigue for people.

I just hope that all the powers that be realize that it doesn't HAVE to be rooted in some sort of reality. In a way that A Chorus Line really isn't about an audition, I don't think Follies is really about a reunion. That might be a bad example, when we think about the Chorus Line movie, but I just don't think these things are as unfilmable as people always think they are. But that's easy to say from where I am, I suppose. I just hope whoever directs it has some imagination. Films like Mamma Mia and Sweeney Todd were burst into song musicals, and I think both created worlds in which that worked, regardless of what you think about the movies themselves.

Updated On: 12/10/09 at 01:22 AM

Paul Thomas Anderson, as Altman himself crowned him his heir-apparent. I'd say PTA has the potential to surpass even Altman and could finally do the musical he always wanted to do, but this wouldn't be it I don't think. Stranger things have happened.

P

P.S. MAGNOLIA is a meta-musical.

Yes, agreed genre - this doesn't seem like the movie for Anderson at this point in his life.

I think for film you would almost have to have ONE set of actors playing both Younger and Older. Especially if you are talking about casting names.

Though I know people on this board are very divided on them individually, I would think age wise and star calbre wise you are going to see names like Kidman and Zelwegger, and yes perhaps Zeta Jones (as Carlotta) should this ever happen.

Updated On: 12/10/09 at 01:41 AM

Yeah, I disagree with you accros the board. :)

My dreamworld never gonna happen cast would be Alec Baldwin as Ben, Vanessa Williams as Phyllis, Timothy Hutton as Buddy. I always wanted Natasha Richardson as Sally, but since that can't happen now, I don't know who I'd want to see in the role. Someone on the board, I can't remember who, often mentions Catherine O'Hara, and I think she'd be an interesting choice in the role.

If they are skewing younger like this thread implies, and we assume that Catherine would be Phyllis and we're looking for another big star for Sally, perhaps Nicole Kidman. Maybe Michelle Pfeiffer, but she was always my second choice Phyllis after La Williams.

I don't hate the idea of Kathy Bates as Stella, but I always thought Bette Midler would make a good Stella. Maybe Meryl, if she wouldn't mind slumming in a very supporting role. On that note, I'd love to see big actresses in all the supporting roles. I'd love to see Susan Sarandon as Solange.

I agree. She would be great as Carlotta, too.

George Clooney might make a good Ben, too.

Lol. I can't see her having the voice for Heidi. She'd make a better Hattie, I think, but I like your idea of Shirley MacLaine.